y CONVERSATIONS ON 



" A good resolution, boys : only let them 

 alone, and they will not hurt you. There is 

 another kind of mason-spider, which I never 

 saw, but I have read of it. It is found in the 

 south of France ; I did not happen, however, 

 to meet with one while I was in that beauti- 

 ful country. This kind digs a gallery or 

 hole under ground as much as a foot deep. 

 She lines it with a sort of silk glued to the 

 walls, and makes her door, which is round 

 also, with many layers of mud or earth all 

 kneaded and bound together with some of 

 her silk. On the outside, the door is flat and 

 rough, to make it appear like the dirt around 

 it, and hide it ; on the inside it is shaped like 

 the inside of the door of the other spider I 

 have told you about ; and all covered with a 

 coat of fine silk. The threads of this silk are 

 left long on one side, and fastened to the up- 

 per part of the hole ; and these make the 

 hinge. There is no spring to this ; but when 

 the spider pushes its door open and comes 

 out, it shuts again by its own weight. If this 

 door is forced open by any one when the spi- 

 der is at home, she will catch hold of it and 

 pull it in ; and sometimes even when it is 

 half-opened, she will snatch it out of the 



