second, without any perceptible joining, we ascertained in numerous instances, by catching the floating line and pulling it tight, in which case the spider glides along without attaching another line to the glass; but if she have to coil up the floating line to lighten it, as usually happens, she gathers it into a packet and glues the two ends tight together. Her body, while the floating line streamed out, remained quite motionless, but we distinctly saw the spinnerets not only projected, as is always done when a spider spins, but moved in the same way as an infant moves its lips when sucking. We cannot doubt, therefore, that this motion is intended to emit (if eject or project be deemed words too strong), the liquid material of the thread; at the same time, we are quite certain that it cannot throw out a single inch of thread _without the aid of a current of air_. A long-bodied spider will thus throw out in succession as many threads as we please, by simply blowing towards it; but not one where there is no current, as under a bell-glass, where it may be kept till it die, without being able to construct a bridge over water of an inch long. We never observed more than one floating thread produced at the same time; though other observers mention several. [168] ----“L’un des bouts de ces premiers fils, afin que le vent ou un courant d’air pousse l’autre extrémité de l’un d’eux au delà de l’obstacle.”--Dict. Classique d’Hist. Nat., vol. i. p. 510. “The probable commencement, we think, of the floating line, is by the emission of little globules of the glutinous material to the points of the spinnerules--perhaps it may be dropped from them, if not ejected, and the globules being carried off by the current of air, drawn out into a thread. But we give this as only a conjecture, for we could not bring a glass of sufficient power to bear upon the spinnerules at the commencement of the floating line. “In subsequent experiments we found, that it was not indispensable for the spider to rest upon a solid body when producing a line, as she can do so while she is suspended in the air by another line. When the current of air also is strong, she will sometimes commit herself to it by swinging from the end of the line. We have even remarked this when there was scarcely a breath of air.