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COMPOSITE SNARES AND SECTORAL ORBS. 
feet, Nephila clavipes. If one succeeds in pushing his way with much 
difficulty through the briers, his face is pretty sure to come into contact 
with the strong threads of these spiders, which are spread over the bushes 
and between trees along the roadside. The web is perpendicular, the part 
on which the spider sits, head downward, is geometric, but this is sur- 
rounded on all sides by a vast array of irregular lines, the frame of which 
consists of compound threads, stretching from the surrounding trees and 
shrubs. Some of these threads are twelve feet long, of a yellow color, and 
nearly as thick as sewing silk; Mr. Gosse found them able to resist a 
great pressure without breaking; but thought it utterly improbable that 
the rapid and powerful flight of even the most minute hummingbird could 
be for a moment arrested by the web of this or any other spider.! 
1P. H. Gosse, “ Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica,” page 240. 
