CHAPTER LVII.
1125. Why can gossamer spiders float through the air?
Because, having no wings, and being deficient in the active muscular powers of other spiders, they have been endowed with the power of spinning a web which is so light that it floats in the air, and bears the body of the gossamer spider from place to place. Each web acts as a balloon, and the spider attached thereto is a little aeronaut.
1126. Why do crickets make a peculiar chirping sound?
Because they have hard wing cases, by the friction of the edges of which they cause their peculiar noise, to make known to each other where they are, in the dark crevices in which they hide.
Fig. 74.—GLOW-WORM USING HIS BRUSH.