Ee ig nw te a ee To 
. ee 
212 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
prolongation at the bottom. The free space exscinded about one-fifth of 
the orb. The trapline branched at the hub end, and was held at the 
other end by the spiderling, which was backed against the axil of the 
leaf, surrounded by a tiny open booth of delicate cross lines. This leaf 
was braced to one behind it by various cords. 
The late Rey. J. C. Wood, a good observer in many things, indorses the 
current opinion that if spiders find that the wind stretches their nets to a 
dangerous extent, they hang pieces of wood, stone, or other sub- 
Epeira’s stance to them, so as to obtain the needful steadiness. He de- 
yds clares that he had seen a piece of wood which had been thus 
nchor. : ; ; ; 
used by a Garden spider, and which was some two inches in 
length and thicker than an ordinary drawing pencil. The spider hauled 
it to a height of nearly five feet, and when the suspending thread was 
accidentally broken the little creature immediately lowered itself to the 
ground, attached a fresh thread, ascended again to the web and hauled the 
piece of wood after it. It brought this balance weight a distance of five 
feet along the ground before reaching the spot below the web. There 
were eight or ten similar webs in the veranda, but only in this single 
instance was the net steadied by a weight.1 I cannot pretend, in view of 
the indefinite nature of the record, to explain on more natural principles 
the action of this spider. Had the stick been attached to the bottom of the 
web, I could have more readily drawn the inference that the purpose was 
to stay the orb against the violence of the wind; but I cannot imagine 
what use it could have been at the top, where it ought to have had a con- 
trary effect. However, the inference which the ingenious and interesting 
popular writer has drawn from the incident is in any case entirely too 
sweeping. 
Mr. Wood’s incident does not stand alone. In “ Hardwicke’s Science 
Gossip,” an admirable repository for general observations made by natural- 
ists and nature loving persons in Great Britain, I find several records of a 
similar character, which I here note. 
A large Diadem spider had begun a web by fastening threads to the 
eaves of a corridor roof about seven feet high. The extreme points of 
the outer stay lines were about four feet apart, and these were 
a united at a distance of about three feet from the roof, thus 
* forming a triangle. From the point thereof a single strand was 
carried down to within two or three inches of the ground. To the end of 
this strand was suspended a small triangular stone about half an inch 
across and one-fourth of an inch thick. It is evident, says the observer, 
that the stone must have been fastened to the glutinous web as it lay upon 
the earth, and was subsequently drawn up. As the wind caught the web — 
it caused the stone to vibrate gently, and the motion thus communicated 
1 Wood, “Homes Without Hands,” page 319. 
