diff --git a/doc/dir-spec.txt b/doc/dir-spec.txt
index 7cfd83b614..0ef3eea5e8 100644
--- a/doc/dir-spec.txt
+++ b/doc/dir-spec.txt
@@ -413,7 +413,9 @@ $Id$
    When choosing which documents to download, clients treat their list of
    directory authorities as a circular ring, and begin with the authority
    appearing immediately after the authority for their most recently
-   published network-status document.  
+   published network-status document.  If this attempt fails, the client
+   retries at other caches several times, before moving on to the next
+   network-status document in sequence.
 
    Clients discard all network-status documents over 24 hours old.