286 ON THE NETS OF GEOMETRIC SPIDERS. 
“Tf” say the learned authors, “the position of the 
main line be thus determined by the accidental 
influence of the wind, we might expect to see these 
nets arranged with great irregularity, and crossing 
each other in every direction; yet it is the fact that, 
however closely crowded they may be, they con- 
stantly appear to be placed not by accident but de- 
sign, commonly running parallel with each other at 
right angles with the points of support, and never 
interfering.” In favourable weather it is well known 
that the Geometric Spiders frequently begin to con- 
struct their nets soon after the close of day; and 
as similar processes must be influenced in a like 
manner by the simultaneous operation of the same 
cause, the limes of individuals carried out by a cur- 
rent of air till they become attached to some distant 
object will be all parallel or nearly so. This regu- 
larity, therefore, instead of militating against the 
opinion maintained above, appears to me to furnish 
a powerful argument in support of it. 
Sometimes the Geometric Spiders suspend their 
nets in places not entirely surrounded by objects to 
which, in the first instance, they can proceed and 
attach their boundary lines. In such cases their 
operations are deserving of attention. After spinning 
a few radii, which are fixed to several distant points 
most accessible to her, the spider fastens a thread 
to one of them, gluing it to that extremity which is 
furthest from the centre of her net. Along this 
