294, OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
presses its spinners (which are eight in number) 
against one of the glossy lines composing the founda- 
tion of its snare, and, emitting from them a small 
quantity of liquid gum, attaches to it several fine 
filaments drawn out by advancing the abdomen a 
little, and kept distinct by a lateral motion of the 
mammule. The posterior legs are then raised above 
the plane of position, and the foot of one of them is 
applied to the superior surface of the metatarsal joint 
of the other, a little above its articulation with the 
tarsus, and the calamistrum, before described, is 
brought immediately beneath the spinners, at right 
angles with the line of the abdomen. By a slight 
extension of the joints of the posterior legs the cala- 
mistrum is directed backwards across the mammule, 
the diverging extremities of which it touches in its 
transit, and is restored to its former position by a 
corresponding degree of contraction in the joints. 
In proportion to the continuation of this process (and 
it is not at all unusual for the spider to pass the 
calamistrum across the points of the mammulz seve- 
ral hundred times in rapid succession), the inflected 
lines and bands of the flocculus are found to be pro- 
duced, the spider making room for them as they 
accumulate by elevating, and at the same time ad- 
vancing, the abdomen, which it effects by slightly 
extending the joints of the third pair of legs and 
contracting those of the first and second pairs. As 
this operation is generally performed in the night, it 
