272 ON AERONAUTIC SPIDERS. 
edge of the vessel containing the liquid. Various 
species of spiders occasionally proceed down the twig 
into the water, and endeavour to walk over the 
bottom of the vessel, the atmospheric air confined 
among the hairs with which they are clothed, and 
enveloping in a greater or less degree their limbs and 
body, empowering them to remain immersed for a 
short period without suffering much inconvenience. 
When the experiments are made with Hunting- 
Spiders, a vessel of considerable internal dimensions 
should be selected; for, if this precaution be ne- 
glected, some species (Salticus scenicus, for example) 
will escape by leaping over the water intended to 
confine them; and on such occasions a line, attached 
by its extremity to the station previously occupied 
by each individual, is drawn out after it from the 
spinners. 
Some Aéronautic Spiders, procured on the 2nd of 
October, 1826, were enclosed in glass phials with 
ground stoppers, where they were suffered to remain 
till the 16th of December, an interval of seventy-five 
days, without either food or moisture; yet, at the 
expiration of that period, the only alterations percep- 
tible in their external condition were a small decrease 
in bulk and a slightly wrinkled appearance, particu- 
larly of the abdomen: but their functions were, 
seemingly, unimpaired; for on warm days, or when 
excited by artificial heat, they were lively in their 
motions, and to the last continued to produce their 
