68 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



waiting for its prey, with his legs 

 stretched out, fully six inches — 

 striding across the middle of the 

 net, and noted the rapid manner 

 in which he winds his stout thread 

 around the unfortunate captive. 



He usually throws the coils 

 about the head until the wretched 



suspended on brush or tree or a 

 wire fence of some pasture, being 

 of golden yellow, with jet black 

 stripes; and the smaller one, of 

 star shape, very numerously en- 

 countered on the prairie plains. 

 The photo represents them slightly 

 magnified from nature. All of 



Microscopic Appearance op the Door Material op the 

 Thapboor Spioer or California Ground Tarantula 



victim is first blinded and then 

 choked. In many unfrequented 

 daftt nooks of the jungle you 

 come across skeletons of small 

 birds caught in these terrible 

 snares. ' ' 



They are very beautifully 

 marked when seen in the prairie 



them prepare large spiderwebs 

 which serve as traps to entangle 

 such insects as flies, grasshoppers, 

 beetles and other insects. I met 

 once one such large web with a 

 large Devil's horse entangled in its 

 meshes and tHe huge spider evi- 

 dently had just inocculated it 

 as it was perfectly motionless. 



