20 The Life of a Spider 



ground, I give a sudden pull. Surprised by 

 this foul play, the Tarantula has no time to 

 release her hold; gripping the spikelet, she is 

 thrown some inches away from the burrow. 

 Her capture now becomes an easy matter. 

 Outside her own house, the Lycosa is timid, as 

 though scared, and hardly capable of running 

 away. To push her with a straw into a paper 

 bag is the affair of a second. 



It requires some patience to bring the Taran- 

 tula who has bitten into the insidious spikelet 

 to the entrance of the burrow. The following 

 method is quicker : I procure a supply of live 

 Bumble-bees. I put one into a Httle bottle 

 with a mouth just wide enough to cover the 

 opening of the burrow ; and I turn the apparatus 

 thus baited over the said opening. The power- 

 ful Bee at first flutters and hums about her glass 

 prison ; then, perceiving a burrow similar to 

 that of her family, she enters it without much 

 hesitation. She is extremely ill-advised : while 

 she goes down, the Spider comes up ; and the 

 meeting takes place in the perpendicular passage. 

 For a few moments, the ear perceives a sort of 

 death-song : it is the humming of the Bumble- 



