476 
SUPPLEMENT 
seed. They are covered with a loose wad, and the animal 
often cements over its cocoon a tolerable quantity of detritus 
of various kinds. The young are excluded towards the end 
of spring or the beginning of summer. Arrived to a consider- 
able degree of their growth, when the cold weather comes on, 
they support its rigours, by remaining concealed under the 
old barks of trees, and stakes. 
The Epeira apolisca, is found in woods, near ponds, and 
in humid places. Its nest is composed of a very close silky 
matter, which Lister compares to the substance yielded by 
prepared flax. There is but one little aperture placed under- 
neath, which the animal closes with its feet, when one 
attempts to seize it. On the approach of winter, it consoli- 
dates this habitation with grains, or pieces of vegetables, 
which it attaches there. It remains there entirely closed up, 
not to come forth until the return of fine weather. But it 
appears, however, that, according to Lister, this epeira some- 
times selects for itself, for hybernation, a locale of a different 
kind, and one more sheltered. It proportions the extent of its 
web to that of the soil, so that the number of concentric 
circles of its net-work varies from fifteen to eight and thirty. 
The same naturalist has seen males confine themselves to 
spreading simple threads, and without much order, upon the 
summits of gramineous plants. He has ascertained that the 
same female, in the space of about two mouths, laid in suc- 
cession, three broods of eggs, which were indicated by so 
many cocoons, and even four in a little longer time. The 
first took place towards the end of May. He amused himself 
for nearly a month and a half, in undoing every day the web of 
an individual of this sex, which he had transported from the 
country into his garden, and which had established its nest 
between the green leaves of the rose-tree. The animal was 
never tired in reconstructing its work, and never abandoned 
the cradle of its offspring. It appears, that under such cir- 
