The Black-Bellied Tarantula 



hide as best I may, when the Spider enters 

 the perpendicular tunnel: if she saw me, she 

 would let go the bait and slip down again. 

 I thus bring her, by degrees, to the orifice. 

 This is the difficult moment. If I continue 

 the gentle movement, the Spider, feeling her- 

 self dragged out of her home, would at once 

 run back indoors. It is impossible to get the 

 suspicious animal out by this means. There- 

 fore, when it appears at the level of the 

 ground, I give a sudden pull. Surprised by 

 this foul play, the Tarantula has no time to 

 release her hold; gripping the spikelet, she is 

 thrown some inches away from the burrow. 

 Her capture now becomes an easy matter. 

 Outside her own house, the Lycosa is timid, 

 as though scared, and hardly capable of run- 

 ning away. To push her with a straw into a 

 paper bag is the affair of a second. 



It requires some patience to bring the 

 Tarantula who has bitten into the insidious 

 spikelet to the entrance of the burrow. The 

 following method is quicker : I procure a sup- 

 ply of live Bumble-bees. I put one into a 

 little bottle with a mouth just wide enough to 

 cover the opening of the burrow; and I turn 

 the apparatus thus baited over the said open- 



57 



