210 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



the eggs or the young ones is to put them all 

 in a hole in the ground. Earthworms make 

 a little barrel of hardened slime secreted by the 

 " saddle" or swollen girdle on their body, and 

 as this slips forward it carries the liberated 

 eggs with it and closes up at the ends. We 

 find it sometimes when digging in the garden. 

 The mother trap-door spider makes a well- 

 finished shaft with smooth walls and a silk- 

 hinged lid, and lays her eggs in a bunch at the 

 foot. The crocodile lays her eggs in the warm 

 earth, sometimes with decaying vegetable matter 

 round about, and the young one calls to her 

 from within the egg when it is ready to be 

 hatched, for it would be awkward to be born 

 2 feet below the surface. Yet that is what 

 happens to the offspring of those mound-birds 

 that dig a hole in the warm, loose volcanic sand 

 of the beech in Celebes. The mole's nest is 

 also underground a grass-lined chamber below 

 a big mole-hill. 



Another way of securing the safety of the 

 eggs or the offspring is to hide them off the 

 ground altogether. Many insects lay their 

 eggs in or on leaves ; many spiders put their 

 eggs in a silken bag or cocoon and fasten this 

 between two leaves, or in a crevice. Some 



