214 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
piece of wood or oth- 
er like material, but 
commonly is a small 
pebble or gravel from the 
path. In one such case, 
when he had taken away 
Cl 
i 
‘\ 
i 
Nil 
was. fastened lay upon the ground, 
and this fact itself compels me to 
doubt Professor Pavesi’s conclusion. I 
, RS 
i Ne) XN . 
iil \ suit the counterpoise, he saw 
Nes Wee] li] Ga nee 
WSs SEO? LU the spider descend by the ver- 
i WG tical thread to ascertain what 
w® SSZM/ had happened, and, having ar- 
\? VN Se rived at the ground, she fastened 
SE SEER the line to another pebble. 
= LSS 2 p 
ee ae if, Sea It will be observed in this case 
oie that the pebble to which the thread 
() Ii 
Fic. 203. Meta merianz, with a counter- cannot resist the thought that. in this, 
poised snare. (After Parons.) as in other cases where the pebble was 
found lifted above the ground and acting as a counterpoise, it had orig- 
inally been in the same po sition upon the garden path, and had 
been raised by the elasticity of the thread, the mechanical action of 
the wind, the motion of the spider, and the swaying of the trees. 
Another observation has been made by Professor Parona of It- 
aly, and recently communi cated in a paper entitled, “A Peculiar- 
ity in the Habits of Meta meriane.”! In October, 1886, 
Meta’s he observed in a villa at ‘Baccione, on Lake Orta, a web 
“are of Meta meriane, spun in the entrance of a short arti- 
ficial gallery exca vated in solid earth. The orb, as is 
customary with nets woven in like positions, was stayed by a series 
of lateral lines, which were suspended upward against the arching 
vault, and were prolonged downward toward the walk. The snare 
was about sixteen inches wide (forty centimetres), and was ex- 
posed to the sweep of the wind. The thread prolonged from the 
outer margin to the ground was about twenty-seven inches (sixty- 
seven centimetres) in length. At the end of this line was hung a 
fragment of soil identical with that of the vault, and about as 
large as a seed of Indian corn (di grano tureo). (Fig. 203.) The 
soil was compact and heavy, and the pellet acted as a counter- 
at 
poise, holding the web fully ly extended, so that it was sufficiently 
1 Particolarita nei Costumi della Meta merians, Scop. del Prof, Corrado Parona, Annali 
del Museo Civico di Stor. Nat. Di Genova, Ser. 2, Vol. VII., 1889, pages 250-5, Tay. VI. 
