sticky, in fact, and in such a way as to provoke surprise. I bring
a fine straw flat down upon three or four rungs of a sector. However
gentle the contact, adhesion is at once established. When I lift the
straw, the threads come with it and stretch to twice or three times their
length, like a thread of India-rubber. At last, when over-taut, they
loosen without breaking and resume their original form. They lengthen by
unrolling their twist, they shorten by rolling it again; lastly, they
become adhesive by taking the glaze of the gummy moisture wherewith they
are filled.

In short, the spiral thread is a capillary tube finer than any that our
physics will ever know. It is rolled into a twist so as to possess an
elasticity that allows it, without breaking, to yield to the tugs of the
captured prey; it holds a supply of sticky matter in reserve in its tube,
so as to renew the adhesive properties of the surface by incessant
exudation, as they become impaired by exposure to the air. It is simply
marvellous.

The Epeira hunts not with springs, but with lime-snares. And such lime-
snares! Everything is caught in them, down to the dandelion-plume that
barely brushes against them. Nevertheless, the Epeira, who is in
constant touch with her web, is not caught in them. Why?

Let us first of all remember that the Spider has contrived for herself,
in the middle of her trap, a floor in whose construction the sticky
spiral thread plays no part. We saw how this thread stops suddenly at
some distance from the centre. There is here, covering a space which, in
the larger webs, is about equal to the palm of one's hand, a fabric
formed of spokes and of the commencement of the auxiliary spiral, a
neutral fabric in which the exploring straw finds no adhesiveness
anywhere.

Here, on this central resting-floor, and here only, the Epeira takes her
stand, waiting whole days for the arrival of the game. However close,
however prolonged her contact with this portion of the web, she runs no
risk of sticking to it, because the gummy coating is lacking, as is the
twisted and tubular structure, throughout the length of the spokes and
throughout the extent of the auxiliary spiral. These pieces, together
with the rest of the framework, are made of plain, straight, solid
thread.

But, when a victim is caught, sometimes right at the edge of the web, the
Spider has to rush up quickly, to bind it and overcome its attempts to
free itself.