NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 301 
placed upon the vines, she spent a considerable length of time in wan- 
dering back and forward over the leaves, climbing upward all the while, 
: never downward, which may be said to be a common habit of 
Begin- spiders under such circumstances. Finally, she reached a spot 
Nest. well to the top of the vine covered arbor, which seemed to suit 
her. Several leaves, closely clustered together, drooped over in 
such a way as to form a natural shelter, and underneath these the spider 
began arranging her tent. She passed backward and forward under the 
surfaces of the several leaves in the cluster, stretching lines from one to 
the other in the manner already described. Her motions seemed to be 
really aimless. She appeared to be guided by no special principle in ex- 
tending any single thread, and it was difficult to observe what bearing her 
work might have upon the end manifestly in view. After a long time 
spent in this kind of spinning, a confused mass 
of lines was left upon the upper part of the in- 
ner surfaces of the clustered leaves. 
In the meantime, however, the process had 
evidently drawn the leaves somewhat together, at 
least had compacted them into a closer cluster, // /| 
holding one against the other so tightly that |// 
they were not separated by the currents of wind. | 
The spider then placed the end of her body, the 
abdomen, against this maze of threads. The de- 
tails of her behavior thereafter were not accu- 
rately marked, but the substance of her method 
appeared to be as follows: she pushed against 
the lines with her abdomen, moving the spin- 
nerets back and forward at the same time, until 
a slight concavity was formed, and the mass be- F's. 277. Last stages of nest 
: making. 
gan to assume the shape of an inverted bowl. 
The same movements that produced this effect, by pulling upon and tight- 
ening the weft, drew the leaves still more closely together, and forced them 
into the shape of the clustered leaf nest represented at Fig. 254, 
From this shelter the spider departed, and proceeded to spin her orbic- 
ular snare, carrying her trapline into her den, from which she awaited, 
as usual, the trapping of her prey. In the course of time, had 
the spider not been disturbed, the mass of crossed lines would 
have been reduced to a texture of close white silk, and the whole 
would have been moulded into a dome like tent as a lining to the inner 
surface of the leaves. Further on, the margins of this lining would have 
been stretched out towards the tips of the leaves, the edges of the leaves 
would have been agglutinated or sewed in the manner above described, 
and thus the nest would have been completed. 
An interesting illustration of the method of sewing was given by a 
Uphol- 
stery. 
