After a brief exploration of the box the captive soon becomes busy, going to and fro across its cage and attaching lines to the sides at some height up from the floor. So fine is the work that for a long time hardly anything is visible, and the movements of the animal are the only clue to what is taking place. By and by it becomes evident that a sort of skeleton platform has been spun across the box, upon which the spider is able to walk. It is continually strengthened by new threads, and braced by stay-lines above and below. It has been hardly possible to follow the operations by which this has come about, and even now we are chiefly aware of the existence of the platform because we see the spider walking upon it; its movements seemed very scrambling and unmethodical, but they have resulted in the foundation of the sheet-web and its terminal tube. But now it begins to behave quite differently, and another phase of the work has clearly begun; it crawls about over the almost invisible foundation lines with a most curious gait, using its long legs to sway its body from side to side, raising and depressing its abdomen at intervals, and as this motion continues a beautiful gauzy sheet of incredibly fine texture gradually grows into view. What is happening is that the spider is strewing over the foundation lines multitudinous threads from its long posterior spinnerets, which are beset on their under surface with numbers of hair-like spinning tubes from each of which the silk is issuing. All day long the process goes on, and by slow degrees the web increases in density. Indeed for days after the structure is complete the spider spends odd moments in going over the ground again till the sheet, and especially the tube proceeding from it to a corner of the box, are so closely woven as to have become almost opaque, and its occupant at length appears to be satisfied with his handiwork, and retires into the tube to wait patiently for casual visitors. July is a good month in which to experiment with _Agelena_, for if the captives include female specimens some further spinning operations of a very complicated description may be observed. The time of egg-laying is at hand and elaborate preparations have to be made, but if the experimenter wishes to see the whole process he must be prepared to sacrifice his night’s rest, for the most critical part of the performance takes place in the small hours of the morning. We will describe what occurred in the case of one _Agelena_.