68 STRANGE DWELLINGS: 



dreaded name of Tarantula, and feared lest its bite should 

 produce the disease which was once so rife through Europe, 

 and called Tarantismus. These are all more or less burrowers, 

 and line their tunnels with a silken coating, so as to prevent the 

 earth from falling in upon them. Some of them hunt about 

 after prey, while others sit at the entrance of the den and wait 

 for the approach of any passing insect, which they may seize 

 and devour at their leisure in the safe retreat of the neighbour- 

 ing burrow. In this tunnel their young are hatched, and, as 

 soon as they can struggle themselves free from the egg, they 

 clamber upon their mother's back, and there cling in heavy 

 clusters, often hiding her shape by their numbers. 



One species of spider that goes by the name of Tarantula is 

 resident in Siberia, and hides in holes in the ground. The 

 peasantry are greatly afraid of it, fancying that it will bite them, 

 and that its bite will cause great injury. For their terrors there 

 are really some grounds, inasmuch as the spider is a savage kind 

 of creature ; and if a knife be pushed into its den, it will rush 

 out in a fury, and try to bite the blade. In all probabiHty, 

 however, it is not very venomous, for it is actually eaten by 

 sheep as they graze. 



Of all the burrowing spiders, however, none is so admirable 

 an excavator as the Trap-door Spider of Jamaica, and none 

 displays so much ingenuity in the arrangement of its burrow. 

 Specimens of both the tunnel and the spider are now before me, 

 and it is impossible to inspect them without admiration. When 

 removed from the earth which surrounded it, the silken tube is 

 seen to be double, the outer portion being thick, deeply stained 

 of a ruddy brown, and separated into a great number of flakes, 

 lying loosely upon each otlier. This outer covering is so thick, 

 harsh, and crumpled, that it looks more like the rough bark of 

 a tree than a spider's web, and its tme nature would hardly be 

 recognised even by the touch. The exterior of a common wasp's 

 nest bears some resemblance to this part of the tube. Beneath 

 this covering is an inner layer of a very diiferent character. 

 This is uniformly smooth to the eye, and of a silken softness to 



