FOOD OF INSECTS. 



343 



triples or quadruples by a repetition of the operation just 

 described; and from it she draws other threads in various 

 directions, the interstices of which she fills up by running 

 from one to the other, and connecting them by new threads 

 until the whole has assumed the gauze-like texture which we 

 see. Books of natural history, all copying from one another, 

 have described these kinds of web as fabricated of a regular 

 warp and woof, or of parallel longitudinal lines crossed at 

 right angles by transverse ones glued to them at the points 

 of intersection. This, however, is clearly erroneous, as you 

 will see by the slightest examination of a web of this kind, 

 in which no such regularity of texture can be discovered. 



The webs just described present merely a simple horizontal 

 surface, but others more frequently seen in out-houses and 

 amongst bushes possess a very artificial appendage. Besides 

 the main web, the spider carries up from its edges and 

 surface a number of single threads, often to the height of 

 many feet, joining and crossing each other in various direc- 

 tions. Across these lines, which may be compared to the 

 tackling of a ship, flies seem unable to avoid directing their 

 flight. The certain consequence is, that in striking against 

 these ropes they become slightly entangled, and, in their en- 

 deavours to disengage themselves, rarely escape being pre- 

 cipitated into the net spread underneath for their reception, 

 where their doom is inevitable. 



But the net is still incomplete. It is necessary that our 

 hunter should conceal her grim visage from the game for 

 which she lies in wait. She does not, therefore, station her- 

 self upon the surface of her net, but in a small silken apart- 

 ment constructed below it, and completely hidden from view. 

 " In this corner," to use the quaint translation of Pliny by 

 Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physic " with what subtiltie 

 doth she retire, making semblance as though she meant 

 nothing less than that she doth, and as if she went about 

 some other business ! nay, how close lieth she, that it is im- 

 possible to see whether any one be within or no ! " But thus 

 removed to a distance from her net and entirely out of sight 



1 L. xi. c. 24. 



z 4 



