342 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



basis of every subsequent work on the subject, main- 

 tains, that " some spiders shoot out their threads in 

 the same manner that porcupines do their quills; 

 that whereas the quills of the latter are entirely se- 

 parated from their bodies, when thus shot out, the 

 threads of the former remain fixed to their anus, aa 

 the sun's rays to its body."* A French periodical 

 writer goes a little farther, and says, that spiders 

 have the power of shooting out threads, and directing 

 them at pleasure, towards a determined point,, 

 judging of the distance and position of the object 

 by some sense of which we are ignorant. "f" Kirby 

 also says, that he once observed a small garden 

 spider [Jlranea reticulata), " standing midway on a 

 long perpendicular fixed thread, and an appearance 

 caught" his " eye, of what seemed to be the emission 

 of threads." " I," therefore, he adds, " moved my 

 arm in the direction in which they apparently pro- 

 ceeded, and, as I had suspected, a floating thread 

 attached itself to my coat, along which the spider 

 crept. As this was connected with the spinners of 

 the spider, it could not have been formed" by 

 breaking a "secondary thread. "J Again, in speaking 

 of the gossamer-spider, he says, it " first extends its 

 thigh, shank, and foot, into a right line, and then, 

 elevating its abdomen till it becomes vertical, shoots 

 its thread into the air, and flies off from its station. "§ 

 Another distinguished naturalist, Mr White of 

 Selborne, in speaking of the gossamer-spider, says, 

 " every day in fine weather in autumn do I see 

 these spiders shooting out their webs and mounting 

 alofl: they will go off from the finger, if you will 

 take them into your hand. Last summer, one 

 alighted on my book as I was reading in the par- 



* Lister, Hist. Animalia Angliae, 4to. p. 7. 



f Phil. Mag. ii. p. 275. 



t Vol. i. Intr. p. 417. § Ibid. ii. p. 339. 



