A WELL-PLANNED DEN 



weakened to such an extent by the burrowings of the cray- 

 fish as to give way, and allow the river to inundate the 

 surrounding country." 



The famous Tarantula Spider (Lycosa tarentula\ the bite 

 of which, in Italy, is so greatly dreaded by the peasants, 

 who believe that it is followed by a disease called "taran- 

 tism," and that it can only be cured by a certain kind of 

 music, is an expert in the making of burrows. When 

 digging, it first loosens the earth with its mandibles, and 

 then, after scraping it together into a small heap, makes it 

 into a neat little packet by means of silk and slime from its 

 mouth, and flicks the pellet away to some distance. In- 

 habiting by preference dry, barren, open ground, which is 

 fully exposed to the warmth of the sun, it sinks in the earth 

 a cylindrical shaft more than a foot long and about an inch 

 in diameter, in which it lies hidden during the day, coming 

 out at nightfall to seek for prey, for it is one of the wolf 

 spiders and hunts its game without the aid of snares. 



The burrow is artfully planned. At first there is a sheer 

 descent four or five inches in depth, but at that distance 

 below the surface the tube turns aside before dipping straight 

 down again to its termination. It is at the angle or elbow 

 of the tube that the tarantula watches for the approach of 

 enemies or prey, like a vigilant sentinel, never for a moment 

 off its guard. " It is there,' 1 says M. Leon Defour, "that at 

 the time when I was hunting for tarantulas I saw its eyes 

 sparkling like diamonds, shining in the darkness like a cat's. 

 The external orifice of the burrow is ordinarily surmounted 

 by a separately constructed tube, a true piece of architec- 

 ture, which rises about an inch above the surface of the 

 ground, and is sometimes as much as two inches in diameter, 

 being thus larger than the burrow itself. This last arrange- 

 ment appears to be the result of careful calculation on the 



6? 



