ix] WOLF-SPIDERS 63 



would be difficult, but it is easy to operate in the toler- 

 ably firm sand where the colony has established itself. 



I insert a straw into one of the burrows as a guide 

 to the exploration, and with a knife carefully begin 

 to remove the sand immediately round it. It is lined, 

 I find, by a very delicate and slight coating of silk, 

 no more than sufficient to keep the sand particles of 

 its walls from falling down into the tube. I go doAvn 

 for an inch and a half or so and find that the tube 

 ends blindly in a sort of silk-lined pocket, but no 

 spider is there ! This is mysterious, for I am pretty 

 sure that my spiders are at home. 



I go to work upon another burrow, but this time 

 in a different way, digging it out bodily with its 

 surrounding sand, and placing it on a sheet of paper, 

 with which I am luckily provided, for a detailed 

 examination. I can now approach it from the side, 

 and by carefully removing the sand, lay bare the 

 whole silken tube. As before there is a straight 

 perpendicular burrow, ending blindly, and unin- 

 habited, but at a point at about half-way down the 

 tube I find a branch bending upward, so that the 

 whole tunnel is Y shaped, and at the blind end of this 

 branch I find the spider. 



This observation suggests that the tunnels of some 

 of our English wolf-spiders may be more complex 

 than was imagined. At present nothing is known of 

 their nature in the case of other species. 



