154 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



her business ; she walks or rests, she seeks her prey, at- 

 tacks it and devours it. Should some accident cause the 

 wallet to drop off, it is soon replaced. The spinnerets 

 touch it somewhere, anywhere, and that is enough: ad- 

 hesion is at once restored. 



When the work is done, some of them emancipate 

 themselves, think they will have a look at the country 

 before retiring for good and all. It is these whom we 

 meet at times, wandering aimlessly and dragging their 

 bag behind them. Sooner or later, however, the vagrants 

 return home ; and the month of August is not over before 

 a straw rustled in any burrow will bring the mother up, 

 with her wallet slung behind her. I am able to procure 

 as many as I want and, with them, to indulge in certain 

 experiments of the highest interest. 



It is a sight worth seeing, that of the Lycosa dragging 

 her treasure after her, never leaving it, day or night, 

 sleeping or waking, and defending it with a courage that 

 strikes the beholder with awe. If I try to take the bag 

 from her, she presses it to her breast in despair, hangs 

 on to my pincers, bites them with her poison-fangs. I 

 can hear the daggers grating on the steel. No, she 

 would not allow herself to be robbed of the wallet with 

 impunity, if my fingers were not supplied with an im- 

 plement. 



By dint of pulling and shaking the pill with the for- 

 ceps, I take it from the Lycosa, who protests furiously. 

 I fling her in exchange a pill taken from another Lycosa. 

 It is at once seized in the fangs, embraced by the legs 



