55 



her hind feet ; so that it may strike the threads as it kicks, and become entangled with 

 them. As soon as the insect is tied tightly enough to be handled, the spider holds and 

 turns it over and over with her third pair of feet, while with the fourth pair, she draws 

 out, hand over hand, the band of fine threads which adhere to the insect, as it turns, and 

 soon cover it entirely. 



It is a common habit with spiders to draw out a thread behind as they walk along ; 

 and in this way they make the great quantities of threads that sometimes cover a field of 

 grass or the side of a house. We often see the points of all the pickets of a fence con- 

 nected by threads spun in this way by spiders running down one picket and up the 

 next, for no apparent purpose. 



Spiders often descend by letting out the thread to which they hang; and are able to 

 control their speed, and to stop the flow of thread at will. They sometimes hang down 

 by a thread, and allow themselves to be swung by the wind to a considerable distance, let- 

 ting out the thread when they feel they are going in the right direction. 



Spiders in confinement begin at once to spin, and never seem comfortable till they can 

 go all over their box without stepping off their web. The running spiders, that make no 

 other webs, when about to lay their eggs, find or dig out holes in sheltered places, and 

 line them with silk. Species that live under stones or on plants, all line their customary 

 hiding-places with web to which they hold when at rest. Several of the large running 

 spiders dig holes in sand, and line them with web, so that the sand cannot fall in ; and 



build around the mouth a ring of 

 sticks and straws held together by 

 threads. 



Some spiders make a great, irregu- 

 lar nest constructed of grass and 

 leaves drawn together with silken 

 threads. Fig. 22 represents a nest 

 of this kind made by a Dolomedes : 

 it is four or five inches in diameter 

 and contains the egg-cocoon. The 

 young hatch and ramble about in 

 this nest for some time ; the parent 

 spider remains near, usually holding 



22. on under the nest, as represented in 



the illustration. 



6. — Cobwebs. 



The simple nests and tubes that have been already mentioned are, for the most part, 

 made by spiders which spin no other webs. The larger and better known cobwebs for 

 catching insects are made by comparatively few species. On damp mornings in summer 

 the grass-fields are seen to be half covered with flat w^ebs, from an inch or two to a foot 

 in diameter, which are considered by the weatherwise as signs of a fair day. These 

 webs remain on the grass all the time, but only become visible from a distance when the 

 dew settles on them. Fig. 23 is a diagram of one of these nests, supposed, for convenience, 

 to be spun between pegs instead of grass. The flat part consists of strong threads from 

 peg to peg, crossed by finer ones, which the spider spins with the long hind-spinnerets, 

 swinging them from side to side and laying down a band of threads at each stroke. At 

 one side of the net is a tube leading down among the grass-stems. At the top the spider 

 usually stands just out of sight, and waits for something to light on the web, when she 

 runs out and snatches it, and carries it into the tube to eat. If anything too large walks 

 through the web, she turns round and retreats out of the lower end of the tube, and can 

 seldom be found afterwards. In favourable places these webs remain through the whole 

 season, and are enlarged, as the spider grows, by additions on the outer edges, and are 

 supported by threads running up into the neighbouring plants. 



Similar webs are made by several house-spiders, the mode of construction of which 

 is thus described by Kirby and Spence : — 



