It may be doubted whether all the Spiders of this genus make the spiral in the same way, for observers differ in their description of what they have seen. Some say that a non-adhesive spiral from centre to circumference is first made, and that the spider then moves ‘in a closer spiral from the circumference inwards, biting away the former spiral, replacing it by another, which is viscid and adhesive[29].’ Dr. Butler, on the other hand, who ‘watched spiders for months together, petting, feeding, and trying experiments with them every morning,’ after describing the making of the first and non-adhesive part of the spiral, says, ‘This line is not carried to the boundary, but at some distance from the centre a second is commenced, formed of extremely viscid silk, upon which the gummy secretion is distinctly visible, with the aid of a lens, in the form of closely approximated globules of amber-coloured glue. It is said that when the viscid lines are completed the spider cuts away the unadhesive lines, but this I have never observed[30].’ My own observations lead me to believe that Dr. Butler is correct in his description. Though I have often watched, I have never seen a spider ‘biting’ away any part of its web, nor would the falces appear to be adapted for such an operation. They are piercing, not cutting, weapons. The spider may be watched at leisure, if put into a bottle of moderate size, the top of which should be covered with muslin or calico to prevent escape. Here it is fairly easy to bring the pocket lens into play, and to distinguish the different parts of the animal. The eyes, and their arrangement, should be particularly noticed. [Illustration: FIG. 51.--Anchorage of Web.] Blackwall, in support of the position that in making their webs spiders are guided by touch rather than sight, says, ‘Various species, when confined in spacious glass jars placed in situations absolutely impervious to light, construct nets which do not exhibit the slightest irregularity of plan or defect of structure[31].’ My specimens have always been kept in the light, and in small bottles rather than spacious jars, but I have never seen spiders attempt to make a geometrical web under such conditions. A bottle which for some months served as a prison-house for a Garden Spider now stands on my writing-table. Its sides are marked by hundreds of ‘anchorages’--but the threads cross and recross, forming in some parts a kind of sheet, and in others a tangled mass. Some of these threads must have been covered with viscid secretion, for flies were limed, and so fell a prey to the spider. Their dried skins are dotted about among the threads, and the spider itself perished long ago from cold. But I keep the bottle as a curiosity, to show that these spiders do not always make geometrical webs.