106 



HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



1. NEST OP SPIBER WITH 



TRAP-DOOR. 



2. MYGALE HF.NTZII. 



3. TARANTULA OF TEXAS. 



tie creatures to forsake the 

 abdomen as a resting-place 

 and devote it to this purpose ? 

 In the soft, helpless condition 

 that the removal of the skin 

 causes, it would not do for the 

 stronger ones to be moving 

 about and mixing up with the 

 weaker. It is fully a week be- 

 fore they have all moulted, and 

 odd enough the mother looks with 

 the innumerable little ragged cast- 

 off dresses hanging all over the 

 lines of web. 

 Naturalists tell us that young spiders kill one another; 

 but with this species I could detect no such tendency. 

 I kill one and lay it upon the edge of the tower; 

 many of the little ones crawl over it, but pay no atten* 



