82 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



not know the precise spot in which it is located, I 

 should not be able to find it. 



I have twenty-eight of these spiders under observa- 

 tion. I visit them all, and find that more than half of 

 the number, both males and females, have closed their 

 doors very firmly. Some of these burrows are situated 

 in beds of moss, and the moss is so cunningly arranged 

 over them that the most expert naturalist would find it 

 difficult to tell where they are. I have often tried my 

 friends, to see if they could find one of these concealed 

 burrows, and have limited the space to a few square 

 inches, within which it was located, but they scarcely 

 ever hit upon the right spot. 



It is August, and a female digger-wasp is making sad 

 havoc among these spiders. She wants them to feed her 

 young, and nothing but this particular species will do; 

 and woe now to all the spiders with unclosed doors, for 

 she is sure to find them. The wasp is large and strong, 

 and has steel-blue wings, and two bright orange spots 

 on either side of the abdomen. She runs over the 

 ground swiftly, peering here and there, until she alights 

 upon an open burrow, down which she speedily goes, 

 and soon comes out dragging her victim, which she has 

 paralyzed with her powerful sting. 



Sometimes two wasps are hunting in the same vicin- 

 ity, and when one finds a spider, the other tries to 

 wrest it from her. And now a fearful battle ensues. 

 They drop the prey and clinch in deadly conflict, seem- 

 ingly trying to stab each other with their stings. The 



