As a rule, because of the greater abundance of game, she spreads her toils across some brooklet, from bank to bank among the rushes.

She also stretches them, but not so assiduously, in the thickets of evergreen oak, on the slopes with the scrubby greenswards, dear to the Grasshoppers.
Her hunting-weapon is a large upright web, whose outer boundary, which varies according to the disposition of the ground, is fastened to the neighbouring branches by a number of moorings.

Let us see, first of all, how the ropes which form the framework of the building are obtained.
All day invisible, crouching amid the cypress-leaves, the Spider, at about eight o'clock in the evening, solemnly emerges from her retreat and makes for the top of a branch.

In this exalted position she sits for sometime laying her plans with due regard to the locality; she consults the weather, ascertains if the night will be fine.

Then, suddenly, with her eight legs widespread, she lets herself drop straight down, hanging to the line that issues from her spinnerets.
Just as the rope-maker obtains the even output of his hemp by walking backwards, so does the Epeira obtain the discharge of hers by falling.
It is extracted by the weight of her body.
The descent, however, has not the brute speed which the force of gravity would give it, if uncontrolled.