108 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



many little burrows in the neighborhood of the tree, 

 where they have settled down as staid house-keepers. 



Some twenty-five or thirty are still with the mother, 

 and the weather being cold and disagreeable, these show 

 no disposition to leave. I remove the plants from the 

 jar that I may be better enabled to watch their pro- 

 ceedings. 



The mother has cleared the web from her body, and 

 looks plump and bright. She sits on the top of her 

 tower, with the little ones stationed thickly all around 

 the edge — seldom now are they resting upon her; but 

 when she goes within her burrow they all follow. For 

 several days past whenever I have given her food she 

 quickly disappears with it, and this, no doubt, is the 

 reason why they -follow her. On her re - appearance I 

 see that a few have availed themselves of the oppor- 

 tunity of being carried up upon her back, but they do 

 not remain there. 



One of these little creatures has resolved to set up 

 house - keeping in the jar without taking its allotted 

 period of roving life, and its performances are the most 

 amusing of anything I have ever witnessed in insect 

 life. It is making its tube down the side of the jar, 

 so that the glass forms about a third of the wall, thus 

 enabling me to see the movements of the little builder 

 at all times. 



The tube is very small, scarcely one-fourth of an inch 

 in diameter. In two days it has excavated an inch be- 

 low the surface, and built up a tiny tower fully half an 



