The Narbonne Lycosa 



paper, kept in their round shape with a few 

 bands of thread. Both are very readily ac- 

 cepted instead of the real bag that has been 

 removed. 



Can the illusion be due to the colouring, 

 which is light in the cork and not unlike the 

 tint of the silk globe when soiled with a little 

 earth, while it is white in the paper and the 

 cotton, when it is identical with that of the 

 original pill? I give the Lycosa, in ex- 

 change for her work, a pellet of silk thread, 

 chosen of a fine red, the brightest of all 

 colours. The uncommon pill is as readily 

 accepted and as jealously guarded as the 

 others. 



We will leave the wallet-bearer alone; we 

 know all that we want to know about her 

 poverty of intellect. Let us wait for the 

 hatching, which takes place in the first fort- 

 night in September. As they come out of the 

 pill, the youngsters, to the number of about 

 a couple of a hundred, clamber on the 

 Spider's back and there sit motionless, 

 jammed close together, forming a sort of 

 bark of mingled legs and paunches. The 

 mother is unrecognizable under this live man- 

 tilla. When the hatching is over, the wallet 

 119 



