. The remains . gs and all,without leaving the smallest appearance ofa fragment. He had eaten seven of theseflies before the spider fell in his way. August ^0, 1801. —A spider of thiskind, of an enormous size, has now a web,of about a foot in diameter, hung with spoils,against a wooden fence in the yard. I haverepeatedly seen them working their webs,but never could see them begin. Theinsect, here mentioned, has attached hiswork on one side to the fence, from whichit projects obliquely, and is suspended to abranch of a vine, at the distance of five feetfrom the circle of the web. As the suspend
. The remains . gs and all,without leaving the smallest appearance ofa fragment. He had eaten seven of theseflies before the spider fell in his way. August ^0, 1801. —A spider of thiskind, of an enormous size, has now a web,of about a foot in diameter, hung with spoils,against a wooden fence in the yard. I haverepeatedly seen them working their webs,but never could see them begin. Theinsect, here mentioned, has attached hiswork on one side to the fence, from whichit projects obliquely, and is suspended to abranch of a vine, at the distance of five feetfrom the circle of the web. As the suspend-ing lines are very strong, and run exactlyhorizontally, without any intermediate sup-port, it is wonderful to me, to think howthey could have been carried so far. Adouble five foot line, which leaves the fencein this direction, must have been a curiouswork for him. ANECDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 57 In the outline here given, the uppersketch is looking down on the work; theunder one is looking horizontally. Fence. The body of the spider being nearlyhalf an inch in length, he has more thantwenty-four times his length in one foot,and, consequently, one hundred and twentytimes in his suspending lines. Now, takingthe standard of a man at five feet six inches,one hundred and twenty times his length,will be six hundred and sixty feet, or twohundred and twenty yards; about threetimes the height of the Monument. Ifwe were set to tie the tops of the steeplesof London together with a cord, withoutscaffolding, should not we be puzzled tocontrive ^ We should go to school to 58 ANECDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. spiders, and ants, and bees; but of all these—the spider does his work alone, September 9, 1801. — This morning,extricated a bee from a web, but withoutany signs of life. Another web containeda bee larger than the common honey bee;he appeared completely enveloped in awinding-sheet of the web, of a very largespider, whose premises he had unfortunatelytrespassed upon. Thus it is evide
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