136 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



other layers of sticks alternated with pellets of clay until 

 the tower is raised sometimes as high as two and a half 

 inches above the ground. The inner surface is smoothed 

 and lined with silk, and the turret is complete. While 

 excavating the burrow the bits of clay as they are bitten 

 loose are compressed within the mandibles into small 

 balls, carried to the top and shot off from the walls 

 with sufficient force to carry them a foot distant." 



Our spider had now crawled out from beneath the 

 dusty ruins of her home, and sat motionless upon a 

 heap of dirt. The Doctor's eye caught sight of a 

 spherical egg-sac as large as a grape which was lashed 

 to the spinning-tubes at the end of the abdomen, and 

 an explanation was asked. 



" This species, like most of her family, carries her 

 cradle, as you see. She rarely, if ever, abandons it, 

 and will give up her life in its defence with the utmost 

 abandon. For at least two months she has dragged 

 that silken ball around with her, while the tiny eggs 

 first placed within it have grown until they ai"e now 

 just ready to burst forth as baby spiderlings. If we 

 capture this mother, and place her in a jar, we shall, 

 in a few days, see a transformation. The egg-sac will 

 have opened, a brood of a hundred or more younglings 

 will have issued forth, and have swarmed upon their 

 mother, hanging in a close cluster upon her abdomen, 

 which will be quite hidden by the wriggling mass of 

 wee bodies and legs. The mother will, of course, seem 

 greatly enlarged by this addition, and will present the 

 appearance of a horrible, hairy, nondescript monster. 



