148 



A COURSE ON ZOOLOGY. 



gossamer threads, are only the debris of innumerable 

 webs woven during the summer by spiders, with which 



the country places are filled. 

 p IG> si. The webs are broken up by 



FIG. 82. 



MUCH-ENLARGED SPIDER'S FOOT, show- 

 ing the toothed claws, gg. 



EXTREMITY OF A SPIDER'S ABDOMEN, 

 enlarged to show the spinning ap- 

 paratus, //. 



the winds and scattered broadcast, and often in their 

 folds carry off the creature that has woven them. 



All spiders are spinners, but all do not weave webs. 

 Some of them simply line their homes with a sort of 

 wadding, and, hidden in the hole of a wall, or behind a 

 clump of earth, remain in ambush, motionless and pa- 

 tient, waiting until some prey comes within their reach ; 

 they then like a flash spring out with the impetuosity 

 and the ferocity of a tiger, and use their web to tie up 

 and paralyze their victim. 



Those that construct webs do not all work in the same 

 manner. Some weave a sort of circular net- work, of which 

 certain lines form rays from the centre to the circumfer- 

 ence, while other finer ones hold them together ; these 

 are closer and closer towards the centre. Others select 

 the angle of a wall, in which they arrange a horizontal, 

 triangular web, closely woven together; they then live 

 in a cylindrical canal placed at one of the angles, and 



