familiar is the snare set for unwary flies,--the
wonderfully ingenious webs which sparkle with dew among the grasses or
stretch from bush to bush. The framework is of strong webbing and upon
this is closely woven the sticky spiral which is so elastic, so ethereal,
and yet strong enough to entangle a good-sized insect. How knowing seems
the little worker, as when, the web and his den of concealment being
completed, he spins a strong cable from the centre of the web to the
entrance of his watch-tower. Then, when a trembling of his aerial spans
warns him of a capture, how eagerly he seizes his master cable and jerks
away on it, thus vibrating the whole structure and making more certain the
confusion of his victim.

What is more interesting than to see a great yellow garden-spider hanging
head downward in the centre of his web, when we approach too closely,
instead of deserting his snare, set it vibrating back and forth so rapidly
that he becomes a mere blur; a more certain method of escaping the
onslaught of a bird than if he ran to the shelter of a leaf.

Those spiders which leap upon their prey instead of setting snares for it
have still a use for their threads of life, throwing out a cable as they
leap, to break their fall if they miss their foothold. What a strange use
of the cobweb is that of the little flying spiders! Up they run to the top
of a post, elevate their abdomens and run out several threads which
lengthen and lengthen until the breeze catches them and away go the
wingless aeronauts for yards or for miles as fortune and wind and weather
may dictate! We wonder if they can cut loose or pull in their balloon
cables at will.

Many species of spiders spin a case for holding their eggs, and some carry
this about with them until the young are hatched.

A most fascinating tale would unfold could we discover all the uses of
cobweb when the spiders themselves are through with it. Certain it is that
our ruby-throated hummingbird robs many webs to fasten together the plant
down, wood pulp, and lichens which compose her dainty nest.

Search the pond and you will find another member of the spider family
swimming about at ease beneath the surface, thoroughly aquatic in habits,
but breathing a bubble of air which he carries about with him. When his
supply is low he swims to a submarine castle of silk, so air-tight that he
can keep it filled with a large bubble of air, upon which he draws from
time to time.

And so we