74 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



stranger, we interchanged the bags of two in- 

 dividuals which we had put under inverted wine- 

 glasses; but both manifested great uneasiness, 

 and would not touch the strange bags. We then 

 introduced one of the mothers into the glass con- 

 taining her own eggs and the other spider ; but 

 even then she did not take to them, which we 

 attributed to the presence of the other, as all 

 spiders nourish mutual enmity. Upon removing 

 the stranger, however, she showed the same in- 

 difference to her eggs as before, and we concluded 

 that, after having lost sight of them for a short 

 time, she was no longer able to recognise them." 



The common earwig, a name at which some, 

 who little know the beautiful traits in her character, 

 are apt to shudder, still more closely resembles the 

 affection of a higher animal than does the spider 

 just mentioned. The following most interesting 

 notice of her proceedings was published by a 

 writer* in the Penny Magazine some time since. 

 He says : " About the end of March I found an 

 earwig brooding over her eggs in a small cell 

 scooped out in a garden border ; and in order to 

 observe her proceedings, I removed the eggs into 

 * Mr. Rennie. 



