AFFECTION Or INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 361 



her struggles dragged the object of contestation under the 

 sand. The unfortunate mother might have preserved 

 her own life from the enemy : she had but to relinquish 

 the bag, and escape out of the pit. But, wonderful ex- 

 ample of maternal affection ! she preferred allowing her- 

 self to be buried alive along with the treasure dearer to 

 her than her existence ; and it was only by force that Bon- 

 net at length with drew her from the unequal conflict. But 

 the bag of eggs remained with the assassin; and though 

 he pushed her repeatedly with a twig of wood, she still 

 persisted in continuing on the spot. Life seemed to have 

 become a burthen to her, and all her pleasures to have 

 been buried in the grave which contained the germe of 

 her progeny a ! The attachment of this affectionate mo- 

 ther is not confined to her eggs. After the young spiders 

 are hatched, they make their way out of the bag by an 

 orifice, which she is careful to open for them, and with- 

 out which they could never escape b ; and then, like the 

 young of the Surinam toad {~Ranajupa\ they attach them- 

 selves in clusters upon her back, belly, head, and even 

 legs ; and in this situation, where they present a very sin- 

 gular appearance, she carries them about with her and 

 feeds them until their first moult, when they are big 

 enough to provide their own subsistence. I have more 

 than once been gratified by a sight of this interesting spec- 

 tacle ; and when I nearly touched the mother, thus cover- 

 ed by hundreds of her progeny, it was most amusing to 

 see them all leap from her back and run away in every 

 direction. 



A similar attachment to their eggs and young is mani- 



a Bonnet, ii, 435. b De Geer, vii. 194. 



