The Garden Spiders: My Neighbour 



allows her to approach or withdraw from the 

 leafy piers at will. From Ae height of the 

 cable, the upp>er boundary of the projected 

 worics, she lets herself slip to a slight depth, 

 varying the points of her fall. She climbs up 

 again by the line produced by her descent. 

 The residt of the operation is a double thread 

 which is unwound while the Spider walks 

 along her big foot-bric^ to the contact- 

 branch, where she fixes the free end of her 

 thread more or less low down. In this way, 

 she obtains, to right and left, a few slanting 

 cross-bars, connecting the cable with the 

 branches. 



These cross-bars, in their turn, support 

 others in ever-changing directions. When 

 there are enough of them, the Epeira need 

 no longer resort to falls in order to extract her 

 threads; she goes from one cord to the next, 

 alwa%"s wire-drawing with her hind-legs and 

 placing her produce in position as she goes. 

 This results in a combination of straight lines 

 owning no order, save that they are kept in 

 one, nearly perpendicular plane. They mark 

 a ver\" irregular pol^onal area, wherein the 

 web, itself a work of magnificent regularity, 

 shall presently be woven. 

 2S5 



