The Life of the Spider 



Seeing no digging-tools, such as the excava- 

 tion of the dwelling seemed to me to require, I 

 wondered whether the Lycosa might not avail 

 herself of some chance gallery, the work of 

 the Cicada or the Earth-worm. This ready- 

 made tunnel, thought I, must shorten the 

 labours of the Spider, who appears to be so 

 badly off for tools: she would only have to 

 enlarge it and put it in order. I was wrong : 

 the burrow is excavated, from start to finish, 

 by her unaided labour. 



Then where are the digging-implements? 

 We think of the legs, of the claws. We 

 think of them, but reflection tells us that tools 

 such as these would not do : they are too long 

 and too difficult to wield in a confined space. 

 What is required is the miner's short-handled 

 pick, wherewith to drive hard, to insert, to 

 lever and to extract; what is required is the 

 sharp point that enters the earth and crumbles 

 it into fragments. There remain the Ly- 

 cosa's fangs, delicate weapons which we at 

 first hesitate to associate with such work, so 

 illogical does it seem to dig a pit with 

 surgeon's scalpels. 



The fangs are a pair of sharp, curved 

 points, which, when at rest, crook like a finger 

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