HATCHING OF EGGS. 105 



her eggs tlie better, she carries them about as it were 

 in a case, with wonderful solicitude and affection; 

 insomuch, that when the skin forniin<^ this case, which 

 hangs to the hinder part of lier body, is by any acci- 

 dent broken off, the Httle insect seeks after it with as 

 much earnestness and industry as a iien for her lost 

 chickens, and when found fastens it again to its place 

 with the greatest marks of joy *." 



Bonnet has given a more detailed account of the 

 manners of this spider, which, though no less fierce 

 and ferocious in aspect than her congeners, mani- 

 fests an extraordinary change of mien when forcibly 

 deprived of her eggs. Then she instantly appears 

 I tame, stops to look around her, and begins to walk at 

 I a slow pace, and search on every side for what she 

 [ has lost, nor will she even fly when one threatens 

 i to seize her. But should the experimenter, moved 

 with compassion, restore her bag of eggs, she catches 

 it up with all haste, and darts away in a moment; 

 or, when left undisturbed, will leisurely attach it again 

 j to her body. 



" With a view," continues Bonnet, " to put this 

 'singular attachment to a novel test, I one day threw 

 a spider with her eggs into the pitfall of an ant-lion 

 {My rmelion formicariuiri)'\ . The spider endeavoured 

 to escape, and was eagerly remounting the side of 

 the pit, when I again tumbled her to the bottom, and 

 the ant-lion, more nimble than the first time, seized 

 the bag of eggs with its mandibles, and attempted 

 to drag it under the sand. The spider, on the 

 other hand, made the most strenuous efforts to keep 

 her hold, and* struggled hard to defeat the aim of the 

 concealed depredator; but the gum which fastened 

 her bag, not being calculated to withstand such 

 violence, at length gave way, and the ant-lion was 



* Book of Nadiro, j)t. i. p. 24. 

 <■ See Insect Archittclu'Cj p. 209. 



