128 THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



and a line running from its hiding-place to the snare gives notice 

 by its vibrations of the capture of prey. Should a comparatively 

 large insect be caught, the spider envelops it in a winding-sheet 

 of silk, and either kills it at once, or, if already sated, leaves it for 

 a future meal. The construction of such an elaborate snare as 

 that of the Garden Spider requires no little ingenuity and care. 

 To begin with, the apparently simple threads are in reality com- 

 plex, being composed, like a rope, of a number of strands, in this 

 case of extreme tenuity. The reason for such complexity is not 

 far to seek. A thread composed of numerous strands is stronger 

 than one of the same bulk would be if made in one piece only- 

 and, further, the viscid material of which the web is composed 

 obviously hardens more quickly when exposed to the air in ex- 

 tremely slender threads than would otherwise be the case. The 

 spinnerets of this particular spider are simply riddled like a sieve 

 by the minute openings of silk-glands, there being, at a moderate 

 computation, some 700 pores in all. The material secreted by the 

 silk-glands is not all of the same kind, for some is destined to be 

 worked up into the non- viscid radiating threads, while others 

 supply the material for the sticky spiral one. Nor is the breadth 

 of the component filaments the same in all cases. The feet of the 

 spider are armed with several curved and toothed claws, and it is 

 more especially those of the hind-legs which are used to work up 

 the raw material into complex lines. The claws also enable the 

 animal to easily climb about its web or travel along the connecting 

 line running from its hiding-place. Staveley (in British Spiders) 

 thus describes the way in which the spider constructs her regular 

 web^: — " The process by which the net of the garden spider is con- 

 structed is well worth observing. The first step is to extend a 

 horizontal cord between two neighbouring points. This is done 

 with the aid of the wind, the spider exposing the spinnerets to a 

 current of air whilst emitting the fluid silk. A thread is thus, as 

 it were, drawn from the spider by the power of the wind, and, 

 coming into contact with some neighbouring object, adheres by 

 its own natural stickiness. This is the commencement of the 

 framework, which is completed by lines placed according to cir- 

 cumstances, some by the spider dropping and swinging from point 

 to point, attaching a thread wherever she touches, and others, as 

 in the case of the first, by means of the wind. The framework 



' "She" has been substituted for "he" throughout the quotation. 



