lo The Life of a Spider 



took fright and deserted her lair for the open, 

 or else she stubbornly remained with her back 

 to the blade. I would then give a sudden jerk 

 to the knife, which flung both the earth and 

 the Lycosa to a distance, enabUng me to 

 capture her. By employing this hunting- 

 method, I sometimes caught as many as fifteen 

 Tarantulae within the space of an hour. 



' In a few cases, in which the Tarantula was 

 under no misapprehension as to the trap which 

 I was setting for her, I was not a little sur- 

 prised, when I pushed the stalk far enough 

 down to twist it round her hiding-place, to see 

 her play with the spikelet more or less contemp- 

 tuously and push it away with her legs, without 

 troubhng to retreat to the back of her lair. 



' The Apulian peasants, according to Baglivi's ^ 

 account, also hunt the Tarantula by imitating the 

 humming of an insect with an oat-stalk at the 

 entrance to her burrow. I quote the passage : 



' " Ruricolce nostri quando eas capture volunt, 

 ad illorum latihula accedunt, tenuisque avenacece 

 fistulcB sonum, apum murmuri non absimilem, 



* Giorgio Baglivi (1669-1707), professor of anatomy and medicine 

 at Rome. — Translator's Note. 



