The Narbonne Lycosa: The Burrow 



says, my field of observation has been greatly 

 extended. My notes have been enriched by 

 new and most remarkable facts. It is right 

 that I should employ them for the purpose of 

 a more detailed biography. 



The exigencies of order and clearness ex- 

 pose me, it is true, to occasional repetitions. 

 This is inevitable when one has to marshal in 

 an harmonious whole a thousand items culled 

 from day to day, often unexpectedly, and 

 bearing no relation one to the other. The 

 observer is not master of his time; oppor- 

 tunity leads him and by unsuspected ways. A 

 certain question suggested by an earlier fact 

 finds no reply until many years after. Its 

 scope, moreover, is amplified and completed 

 with views collected on the road. In a work, 

 therefore, of this fragmentary character, rep- 

 etitions, necessary for the due co-ordination of 

 ideas, are inevitable. I shall be as sparing of 

 them as I can. 



Let us once more introduce our old friends 

 the Epeira and the Lycosa, who are the most 

 important Spiders in my district The Nar- 

 bonne Lycosa, or Black-bellied Tarantula, 

 chooses her domicile in the waste, pebbly 

 lands beloved of the thyme. Her dwelling, 

 127 



