. St. Nicholas [serial] . of the walls about the basement,cither inside or out, in the shrubbery, in thegrass and weeds and flowers, in the trees of theorchard, and about all upright structures, suchas windmill frames. Everywhere we find thenets of these hunters, and always in strategicplaces. The housc-spidcr tries to come intoour homes and carry on his netting operationsin the corners; but good housewifery andspiders seldom seem to agree, and usually thespider and his net meet annihilation. In thebarn and out-buildings, however, he reigns su-preme, monarch of the corners. Spiders are not ins
. St. Nicholas [serial] . of the walls about the basement,cither inside or out, in the shrubbery, in thegrass and weeds and flowers, in the trees of theorchard, and about all upright structures, suchas windmill frames. Everywhere we find thenets of these hunters, and always in strategicplaces. The housc-spidcr tries to come intoour homes and carry on his netting operationsin the corners; but good housewifery andspiders seldom seem to agree, and usually thespider and his net meet annihilation. In thebarn and out-buildings, however, he reigns su-preme, monarch of the corners. Spiders are not insects. They belong to theArachnids, a slightly higher and more special-ized type of life, having for close relatives theticks and the king-crab. They have highlyspecialized organs, and are most interestingcreatures to study with magnifying glass or in 920.] NATURE AND SCIENCE FOR YOUNG FOLKS 851 the field. Their web-making habits are thefeature that most attracts us, and the strangemanner in which these lowly animals build. THE SNARES OP THE LITTLE GRAY ORASS-SPIDKR them is one of Natures wonders. The ma-terial from which webs are made is secretedby the body of the animal. Before being ex-posed to the air, it is a gummy liquid. It passesthrough tiny tubes, called spinnerets, and isoften drawn out by the hind legs. The linethus formed may be of more than one strand(depending on the number of spinnerets used),but the threads merely lie side by side, adher-ing, but not woven or twisted. These webs, in field and wood, fall roughlyinto two classes: those that are circular (al-most geometrically correct in their construc-tion) and arc suspended vertically, and thosethat are flat, spread horizontally over vegeta-tion, and have a tubular retreat in them con-cealing the hunter. The first are more highlyspecialized, having snare-lines covered withsticky beads to hold the winged prey, and alsodry, runway lines for the owner of the the second, or flat-webbed traps, the hunterdepends
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