The Life of the Spider 



rmmion with her for the last three years. I 

 have installed her in large earthen pans on 

 the window-sills of my study and I have her 

 daily under my eyes. Well, it is very rarely 

 that I happen on her outside, a few inches 

 from her hole, back to which she bolts at the 

 least alarm. 



We may take it, then, that, when not in 

 captivity, the Lycosa does not go far afield 

 to gather the wherewithal to build her para- 

 pet and that she makes shift with what 

 she finds upon her threshold. In these 

 conditions, the building-stones are soon ex- 

 hausted and the masonry ceases for lack of 

 materials. 



The wish came over me to see what di- 

 mensions the circular edifice would assume, if 

 the Spider were given an unlimited supply. 

 With captives to whom I myself act as pur- 

 veyor the thing is easy enough. Were it only 

 with a view to helping whoso may one day 

 care to continue these relations with the big 

 Spider of the waste-lands, let me describe how 

 my subjects are housed. 



A good-sized earthenware pan, some nine 

 inches deep, is filled with a red, clayey earth, 

 rich in pebbles, similar, in short, to that of 

 130 



