454 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Lycosa saccata and L. campestris are common mem- 

 bers of the division of Hunting spiders, which are 

 often seen among the herbage, or fallen leaves in 

 gardens, in pastures, on the Downs, and in the covers; 

 and the females especially may be readily identified 

 by their packets of eggs. Each female envelops her 

 eggs in a neat silken cocoon, more or less white accord- 

 ing to the species, which she spins for the purpose, and, 

 suspending it beneath her cephalo-thorax by means 

 of two or three fine braces, retains it in that position 

 till the young are hatched, even then her maternal 

 solicitude does not cease, she literally, without cradle 

 or perambulator, nurses her infant family, sometimes 

 nearly fifty in number, until they are capable of cater- 

 ing for themselves. In the meantime her personal 

 appearance is strikingly curious, her whole batch of 

 nurslings thickly clustering over every part of her body. 

 Many other species of spider enclose their eggs in 

 silken cocoons, weaving them under stones, in crevices 

 of walls, or the bark of trees, rolling them up in dead 

 leaves of plants, or attaching them to various objects 

 without any attempt at concealment. We have often 

 found solitary cocoons, resembling small roundish 

 pellets of mud, attached to bents of grass, stalks of 

 plantain, and other low plants in the Park, by the 

 roadsides, and on the Downs, particularly on Hemner, 

 we believe them to be the cocoons of a species of 

 spider, but although we have kept many of them a 

 long time, the eggs have never hatched, and we have 

 had no opportunity of ascertaining whether they are 

 really those of a spider or not. In these cocoons the 

 eggs are neatly and closely packed in a glistening 

 white envelope of so close a texture that it resembles 

 a fine membrane, and this is thickly coated all over 

 with a dirty-white looking felt, composed of minute 

 particles of earth compactly webbed together. 



The Zebra spider (Salticus scenicus] is another com- 

 mon Hunting spider, seeking its prey in the hottest 



