The Life of a Spider 



' The outer orifice of the Tarantula's burrow 

 is usually surmounted by a shaft constructed 

 throughout by herself. It is a genuine work of 

 architecture, standing as much as an inch above 

 the ground and sometimes two inches in dia- 

 meter, so that it is wider than the burrow itself. 

 This last circumstance, which seems to have 

 been calculated by the industrious Spider, lends 

 itself admirably to the necessary extension of 

 the legs at the moment when the prey is to be 

 seized. The shaft is composed mainly of bits 

 of dry wood joined by a little clay and so artisti- 

 cally laid, one above the other, that they form 

 the s' folding of a straight column, the inside 

 of which is a hollow cylinder. The solidity of 

 this tubular building, of this outwork, is ensured 

 above all by the fact that it is lined, upholstered 

 within, with a texture woven by the Lycosa's ^ 

 spinnerets and continued throughout the interior 

 of the burrow. It is easy to imagine how useful 

 this cleverly-manufactured lining must be for 



• The Tarantula is a Lycosa, or Wolf-spider. Fabre's Tarantula, 

 the Black -bellied Tarantula, is identical with the Narbonne Lycosa, 

 under which name the description is continued in Chapters iii. 

 to VI., all of which were written at a considerably later date than 

 the present chapter. — Translator's Note. 



