TRAP -DOOR SPIDERS. 113 



represented at fig. B 2, Plate IX., p. 9S, but occa- 

 sionally in October I have found two or three young 

 spiders thrice the size of their companions still in the 

 nest. On one occasion (in April) I found twenty-four 

 small spiders clustered beneath and beside their 

 mother.* 1 secured the whole family by quickly 

 cuttino; out the mass of earth containino^ the lower door 

 on the under side of which they remained crouched, 

 and brought them home alive. I had up to this 

 time been in the habit of killing the spiders by placing 

 them in a stopper bottle full of strong spirit of wine, 

 but on treating these spiders in this way I saw 

 reason to res^ret havins^ done so. I knew that these 

 large spiders, when thrown into spirit of wine, would 

 continue to struggle for an hour or more, spasmodically 

 spreading out their legs as if swimming ; but I had 

 supposed that this w^as only muscalar motion, and was 

 not in the least aware that the unfortunate creatures 

 were probably conscious all the while. In this 

 instance I first placed the mother spider in the bottle, 

 and then, after the lapse of about ten minutes, when 

 I supposed that the spider, though still struggling, 

 was dead to sense, I dropped in the young spiders. 

 No sooner, however, had I done this than the mother, 

 perceiving them, gathered all her 3'oung to her, and, 

 after placing them beneath her, with her legs drawn 

 up round them, as a hen screens her chickens with her 

 wings, never stirred again, and retained this attitude 

 until death released her, and the limbs, no longer under 



* I have found similar families in October and November in the nests of 

 N. meridionalis, only all the young were of nearly uniform size, and very 

 small. On Novemlier 21 I dag out a mother spider of this species (meri' 

 dlonalis) with forty -one little ones ! 



I 



