ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



ary bird's nest on a diminutive scale, forming it very 

 symmetrically of bits of grass, leaves, sticks, and 

 rootlets, or of clay, little stones, and a few stronger 

 sticks, loosely interwoven with silky secretion (see 

 Fig. 14). Evidently it plays the same part as a 

 trap-door, and contributes to the concealment 

 of the hole. On removing it the shaft is found to 

 be often twelve and fifteen inches long ; in one 

 instance a depth of twenty-two to twenty-three inches 



was reached. It is 

 perfectly round and 

 perpendicular, and 

 may widen out into 

 two enlarged cham- 

 bers, an upper and 

 a lower one, but the 

 tunnels of many 

 ground-spiders are 

 of the same dia- 

 meter throughout. 

 Both the nest and 

 the tube may be 

 silk-lined, or the latter may be innocent of web ; 

 usually the entrance is neatly underwoven with this 

 substance mixed with sand. Mrs. Treat, an eminent 

 American naturalist, describes another species of 

 spider as establishing a dome-like roof over its tunnel, 

 made up of a canopy of web overlaid with leaves, 

 blades of grass, and such like matters, the whole being 

 securely fastened down except at a place. of entrance 

 and exit, which is only discovered with the closest 

 scrutiny. These spiders have the habit of closing this 



FIG. 14. Nest of the Turret Spider (Lycosa areni- 

 cola\ United States, America. 



