The Life of the Spider 



difficulty, which they do, for that matter, and 

 very nimbly. 



I sweep the whole family from the back 

 of one of my boarders with a hair-pencil. 

 Not a sign of emotion, not an attempt at 

 search on the part of the denuded one. After 

 trotting about a little on the sand, the dis- 

 lodged youngsters find, these here, those 

 there, one or other of the mother's legs, 

 spread wide in a circle. By means of these 

 climbing-poles, they swarm to the top and 

 soon the dorsal group resumes its original 

 form. Not one of the lot is missing. The 

 Lycosa's sons know their trade as acrobats to 

 perfection: the mother need not trouble her 

 head about their faU. 



With a sweep of the pencil, I make the 

 family of one Spider fall around another 

 laden with her own family. The dislodged 

 ones nimbly scramble up the legs and climb 

 on the back of their new mother, who kindly 

 allows them to behave as though they be- 

 longed to her. There is no room on the 

 abdomen, the regulation resting-place, which 

 is already occupied by the real sons. The in- 

 vaders thereupon encamp on the front part, 

 beset the thorax and change the carrier into 



