Weavers and Spinners. 



the spider for about forty minutes. Closer investiga- 

 tion, however, has shown that the thread, on being 

 slowly drawn out, is uniformly coated with viscid 

 matter which afterwards arranges itself into beads, the 

 change being assisted by the sudden liberation of the 

 stretched line at the moment of its attachment to a 

 spoke, as already described. 



The Garden Spider having thus completed her 

 snare, takes up her position either in the centre of 

 it, or in some sheltered retreat close at hand con- 

 nected with the hub by special telegraph lines upon 

 which her sensitive feet rest. For although she pos- 

 sesses eight bright-looking eyes, she is by no means so 

 sharp-sighted as one might suppose ; indeed their posi- 

 tion is not altogether satisfactory for seeing her prey 

 on the web, and it is far more by sense of touch than 

 by power of vision that the spider not only constructs 

 her wonderful web, but also becomes conscious of the 

 entanglement of an insect within its meshes. When 

 the telegraph lines beneath her feet warn ' her of the 

 presence of an insect in the web she immediately rushes 

 to the spot. If the luckless victim is small, it is at once 

 seized, twiddled round and round, while at the same 

 moment it is swathed in a silken band of thread poured 

 forth from the spinnerets, and then carried off to the 

 spider's parlour beneath the screen of some leaf at the 

 margin of the web, where it is devoured at leisure. 

 If, however, it is a large insect, and from its struggles 

 seems likely to offer formidable resistance, then the 

 captive is approached warily, and silk is thrown deftly 

 over it from a safe distance, until it has become so 

 thoroughly swathed and bound that it can be seized 



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