The speckled kind makes a little shabby web under trees.
There is a third species of this animal, preeminently clever and
artistic. It first weaves a thread stretching to all the exterior ends
of the future web; then from the centre, which it hits upon with great
accuracy, it stretches the warp; on the warp it puts what
corresponds to the woof, and then weaves the whole together. It sleeps
and stores its food away from the centre, but it is at the centre that
it keeps watch for its prey. Then, when any creature touches the web
and the centre is set in motion, it first ties and wraps the
creature round with threads until it renders it helpless, then lifts
it and carries it off, and, if it happens to be hungry, sucks out
the life-juices--for that is the way it feeds; but, if it be not
hungry, it first mends any damage done and then hastens again to its
quest of prey. If something comes meanwhile into the net, the spider
at first makes for the centre, and then goes back to its entangled
prey as from a fixed starting point. If any one injures a portion of
the web, it recommences weaving at sunrise or at sunset, because it is
chiefly at these periods that creatures are caught in the web.
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