XII.—Correspondence. 
A Spider’s Web Weighted by a Stone. 
Sandakan, 
British North Borneo, 
To 
The Editor, 
November 28 th, 1911 . 
“ Sarawak Museum Journal .” 
Sir, 
The following may be of interest to your readers. 
Several months ago when I was at Kudat I noticed a 
spider’s web, built from a horizontal beam (not in an angle 
of a horizontal and an upright), which was weighted with 
a small piece of stone—evidently designed to keep the 
whole web taut and in position. The stone was about 4 
feet 6 inches or 4 feet 9 inches from the ground and was 
supported only by two filaments of web (joined about 2 
inches above the stone) with a small extra support on 
one side where the stone had a slight excrescence. The 
web itself was about 18 inches long and 12 inches broad, 
and the pendent strand holding the stone must have 
been nearly a yard. There were several spiders on the 
beam above, but I fancy the one which had built this 
web was about f inch long and of a buff colour, barred 
with chocolate. All these observations must be taken as 
tentative as I had made preparations for photographing 
the web and weighing the stone and measuring the whole 
thing, when a heavy squall destroyed it all, much to my 
chagrin. It would be very interesting to learn if any of 
the residents in Sarawak have noticed a similar case. 
I heard that isolated cases have been noted in Europe, 
but am anxious to prove that this is a custom of one 
particular Bornean species. 
Believe me, Sir, 
Yours faithfully, 
E. J. M. Sawrey-Cookson. 
Sar. Mus. Journ., No. 2, 1912. 
