GROUND SPIDERS. 117 



of the reach of his lady-love, who is not very even tem- 

 pered, sometimes petting him, at others savagely attack- 

 ing him. 



The best builders in my menagerie are Tarantula 

 tigrina (McCook) and T. turricula; but there is a 

 marked difference in individuals, even of the same 

 species, and I am inclined to think that parentage 

 tells with spiders as well as with the higher animals. 

 The first brood which left my famous pet tower-builder, 

 early in July, have built their little towers as neatly as 

 the mother, and precisely in the same way ; while some 

 others of this species rake together whatever they can 

 procure, without order or method. A fine builder of 

 T. turricula, however, far outstrips T. tigrina, and the 

 winter covering over the home of a good tower-builder 

 is carefully made. Small sticks are laid side by side, 

 and held together with web, forming a firm roof, which 

 is lined on the inside with a thick silken web. But 

 probably all of the various species dig and dispose of 

 the earth in the same way. 



Among the New Hampshire spiders sent was a small 

 one — unknown to me — taken from a burrow sixteen 

 inches deep. I put it in a glass jar, with five inches 

 of moist earth well pressed down. It soon commenced 

 to dig a burrow next to the glass, giving me a fine op- 

 portunity to see it work. It dug the earth loose with 

 its mandibles and fore-feet, and then turned, and with 

 its spinneret made the earth into a pellet; it again 

 turned, seized the pellet in its mandibles, necessitating 



