216 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



seized it ; once more I forced it from her jaws, 

 while she sprang and bit at the grass-stem to 

 annihilate it. The fight must have been on for 

 two minutes when, by a regrettable move on 

 my part, one of her legs was injured. She did 

 not falter in her fight. On she rushed for the sack 

 as fast as I pulled it away. The mother in her 

 was rampant. She would have fought for that 

 sack, I believe, until she had not one of her eight 

 legs to stands on, had I been cruel enough to 

 compel her. It did not come to this, for suddenly 

 the sack burst, and out poured a myriad of tiny 

 brown spiderlings. Before I could think, that mo- 

 ther had rushed among them and caused them to 

 swarm upon her, covering her, many deep, even 

 to the outer joints of her long legs, so deep 

 that I could not now have touched her with a 

 needle except at the risk of crushing the young. 

 I stood by and watched her slowly move off with 

 her encrusting family to a place of safety. 



I had seen these spiders try hard to escape with 

 their egg-sacks before, but had never tested the 

 strength of their purpose. I was interested to 

 know how common this mother-instinct might 

 be in them, and for a time made a point of tak- 



