300 ARTICULATA. ARACHNIDA. 



the smaller Birds, but this appears to be fabulous; 

 yet Latreille asserts, that the bite of some species in 

 France has proved fatal even to man. They may 

 therefore reasonably be mistrusted. 



My gale,* the Mason-Spider. 



Of few animals are the instincts more curious or 

 more admirable than of some of these. They dig 

 burrows in the earth, sometimes two feet in depth, 

 which are often so branched into galleries and pas- 

 sages, that it is impossible to trace them. The 

 whole of the inner surface is lined with a silken web 

 of exquisite warmth and softness ; so that when the 

 storms beat without, the Mason lodges snugly and 

 cosily in a house of her own forming and furnishing. 

 But, to exclude intruders who might not always be 

 welcome, she forms a trap-door with a most astonish- 

 ing sagacity. Collecting a number of pellets of earth, 

 she binds them together with web, adding another 

 layer of earth, and another of web, until it attains 

 sufficient solidity ; this is made accurately to fit the 

 mouth of the tube, which is strengthened with a 

 stout circular frame, into which the door shuts, and 

 to which it is fastened by an elastic hinge, of very 

 strong web. Outwardly this door is so rough with 

 earth, that it would never attract notice, but inter- 

 nally it is perfectly smooth, soft, and convex, shut- 

 ting close down by the spring of the hinge. On the 

 side opposite to the hinge, are left some small holes 



* Mt/yaX>5, mygale, the Field Mouse. 



