THE SPIDERS 149 



The bird lining its nest would do no better. Whoso sees 

 the curious, many-colored productions in my pans takes 

 them for an outcome of my industry, contrived with a 

 view to some experimental mischief; and his surprise is 

 great when I confess who the real author is. No one 

 would ever believe the Spider capable of constructing 

 such a monument. 



It goes without saying that, in a state of liberty, on 

 our barren waste-lands, the Lycosa does not indulge in 

 such sumptuous architecture. I have given the reason: 

 she is too great a stay-at-home to go in search of mate- 

 rials and she makes use of the limited resources which 

 she finds around her. Bits of earth, small chips of stone, 

 a few twigs, a few withered grasses : that is all, or nearly 

 all. Wherefore the work is generally quite modest and 

 reduced to a parapet that hardly attracts attention. 



My captives teach us that, when materials are plenti- 

 ful, especially textile materials that remove all fears of 

 landslip, the Lycosa delights in tall turrets. She under- 

 stands the art of donjon-building and puts it into practice 

 as often as she possesses the means. 



What is the purpose of this turret? My pans will tell 

 us that. An enthusiastic votary of the chase, so long as 

 she is not permanently fixed, the Lycosa, once she has 

 set up house, prefers to lie in ambush and wait for the 

 quarry. Every day, when the heat is greatest, I see my 

 captives come up slowly from under ground and lean 

 upon the battlements of their wooly castle-keep. They 

 are then really magnificent in their stately gravity. With 

 their swelling belly contained within the aperture, their 



