54 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



to one of the spokes, and worked slowly outward, 

 fixing the line to each ray as she went by the aid 

 of her hind legs, which are almost hand-like. 

 Then, reversing the process, she fastened another 

 thread to one of the outer cables, and carried it 

 back through the spokes in a similar spiral to the 

 hub or centre. These two spiral threads are the 

 ones which she specially designed for catching her 

 prey ; they are thinner than the spokes, but are 

 closely studded through all their length with tiny 

 drops of sticky stuff like bird-lime, admirably 

 adapted for snaring insects. You can see the 

 drops, if you look close, even with the naked eye ; 

 and they are very clearly visible by the aid of a 

 pocket-lens. 



How is the web itself manufactured and pro- 

 duced ? What is its raw material ? Well, to 

 answer that question I must give you here some 

 brief description of the personal appearance of 

 Rosalind and her sisters. The garden spider, you 

 know (and as you can see her in No. 6), is a 

 great, soft, eight-legged creature, about half an 

 inch long, though her comparatively insignificant 

 husband is very much smaller and less con- 

 spicuous. She consists, in the main, of two parts, 

 the foremost of which, though it rejoices in the 

 scientific title of the cephalothorax (science is 

 always so careful to give things nice easy names 

 while it is about it !), may be more popularly 

 described for most practical purposes as the head ; 

 and to this large compound head are attached the 

 eight long-jointed, hairy legs, with the muscles 



