endless, at least
too long for my present Essay, to describe them, as some with six eyes,
plac'd in quite another order; others with eight eyes; others with fewer,
and some with more. They all seem to be creatures of prey, and to feed on
other small Insects, but their ways of catching them seem very differing:
the Shepherd Spider by running on his prey; the Hunting Spider by leaping
on it, other sorts weave Nets, or Cobwebs, whereby they ensnare them,
Nature having both fitted them with materials and tools, and taught them
how to work and weave their Nets, and to lie perdue, and to watch
diligently to run on any Fly, as soon as ever entangled.

Their thread or web seems to be spun out of some viscous kind of excrement,
lying in their belly, which, though soft when drawn out, is, presently by
reason of its smallness, hardned and dried by the ambient Air. Examining
several of which with my _Microscope_, I found them to appear much like
white Hors-hair, or some such transparent horny substance, and to be of
very differing magnitudes; some appearing as bigg as a Pigg's brisle,
others equal to a Horss-hair; other no bigger then a man's hair; others yet
smaller and finer. I observ'd further, that the radiating chords of the web
were much bigger, and smoother then those that were woven round, which
seem'd smaller, and all over knotted or pearl'd, with small transparent
Globules, not unlike small Crystal Beads or seed Pearls, thin strung on a
Clew of Silk; which, whether they were so spun by the Spider, or by the
adventitious moisture of a fogg (which I have observ'd to cover all these
filaments with such Crystalline Beads) I will not now dispute.

These threads were some of them so small, that I could very plainly, with
the _Microscope_, discover the same consecutions of colours as in a
_Prisme_, and they seem'd to proceed from the same cause with those colours
which I have already describ'd in thin plated bodies.

Much resembling a Cobweb, or a confus'd lock of these Cylinders, is a
certain white substance which, after a fogg, may be observ'd to fly up and
down the Air; catching several of these, and examining them with my
_Microscope_, I found them to be much of the same form, looking most like
to a flake of Worsted prepar'd to be spun, though by what means they should
be generated, or produc'd, is not easily imagined: they were of the same
weight, or very little heavier then the Air; and 'tis not unlikely, but
that those