THE SPIDElfS. 317 



storm threatens, the spider, which is very economical with its 

 valuable spinning material, spins no web, for it knows that 

 the storm will tear it in pieces and waste its pains, and it 

 also does not mend a web which has been torn. If it is seen 

 spinning or mending, on the other hand, fine weather may 

 generally be reckoned on, so that spiders have long served 

 as weather prophets. Steady, fine weather is coming when 

 the cross-spider weaves slowly and regularly ; less good when 

 it shows a certain amount of haste and as it were scamps its 

 work. If it stretches a number of threads to strengthen its 

 web, wind is to be looked for. The cross-spider in fine 

 weather also sits in the middle of its web, while at night or 

 in bad weather it draws back into a corner, whence it darts 

 at its prey. If the latter be very large, so that the spider 

 cannot master it or can only do so with difficulty, such as a 

 bluebottle fly, a wasp, a bee, a grasshopper, etc., the robber 

 approaches slowly and doubtfully, and generally prefers to 

 let it escape, whereas smaller victims are at once spun over 

 and so rendered defenceless. The spider has sometimes 

 even been seen in the former cases to aid the escape of its 

 unwelcome prisoner by biting through some of the threads. 

 At other times, as Dr. Vinsou observed with a Madagascan 

 spider, it draws in front of or through the web proper a 

 specially thick and strong thread, which is designed to hold 

 such stronger insects or to prevent them from tearing the 

 web. 



It often happens that a widely spread web is not tightly 

 enough stretched, and is more swayed backwards and for- 

 wards by the wind than is either convenient or useful to the 

 spider. The sensible creature knows how to improve mat- 

 ters, and spins some strong threads from the ground upwards, 

 attaching them to stones, plants, or other projecting points. 

 This proceeding has indeed the disadvantage that men or 

 animals passing beneath the web often tear the threads. 

 But even then the spider manages to get out of the difficulty 

 in a way which shows so high a grade of intelligence that 

 one would hesitate to mention it, did it not depend on trust- 

 worthy observations. Gleditsch had already related how he 

 saw a spider, in order to draw a web more tightly between 

 two trees, let itself down by a thread to the ground, seize a 

 small stone and then remount, fastening the stone to the 

 lower part of its web so that people could pass comfortably 



