STRUCTUEE OF THE AVER. 
465 
the whole apparent. The arrangement of the legs of 
the species, an Araneus cancriformis as Sloane de- 
scribes it, differs from that of the generality of spiders. 
They are set upon the corslet in double pairs, the 
doublets close together, two pairs before and two 
behind ; the two forelegs of equal length, but the two 
hind ones slightly unequal. In the ordinary position 
of the Spider, when in a state of watchful repose in 
the centre of his web, the four double legs, represent- 
ing the cross usually called St. Andrew’s Cross, are ex- 
tended out so as exactly to cover the zig-zag lacings, 
that form precisely a similar cross. The anomalous 
structure of the Spider’s legs, in the mere necessities 
of wear and tear, rendered requisite this thickening 
of the web in the spots where the legs rested, and the 
whole economy indicated a relation of fitness, useful- 
ness, and consistency, very special in character. 
All the vveb, except about some half inch of the 
centre, was composed of the usual radiated lines with 
concentric intersections. The centre was a sort of off- 
set disk of irregular meshes, to avoid the crowding 
together of the radiations before they converge to a 
point. Immediately beyond this disk, stretching 
through about an inch of the rays, the zig-zag lacings 
were extended, and so overlaid as to make up a mass of 
thickened tissue, about twenty or thirty times the 
thickness of single threads, or of the warp and woof 
of other portions of the web. 
“ By some accident the web I first noticed got de- 
stroyed ; but, in the course of a single day, I found 
the Spider had rebuilt the web in the same hedge 
some ten yards further away ; and though the new 
