BURROWING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 25 
is composed of whatever material Tigrina can reach with her long hind 
legs, while her fore legs rest in the edge of her tube. This funnel is the 
foundation of a concealed room, which it sometimes takes the 
Burrow- spider several nights to build. It seems to refrain from working 
ped eae during the day. Mrs. Treat says that the burrow of Tigrina is 
; uniformly straight. My observation is entirely different ; that of 
Arenicola is uniformly straight down, but Tigrina builds a bent burrow as 
above described. 
A female of this species had a nest in a bed of green moss, and the 
cover looked like a moundlet of moss and leaves. The longest diameter 
measured five inches, and the shortest four and a half inches. 
The base cover was made of acorn cups and sticks firmly held 
together with threads of silk. Then a silken canopy was spun, and 
over this were laid green moss, dry leaves, and sticks held fast with spin- 
ningwork. This made a neat little upper room, the walls of which were 
smooth, silk lined within, but showed natural inequalities on the outside. 
A window was left in the room, the use of which soon appeared. 
The builder had an egg cocoon attached to her spinnerets, and 
would put herself in position to let this rest against the window 
where it received the rays of the sun. For three weeks this was her daily 
occupation, patiently holding her egg sac in the sunlight. Was she not con- 
scious of the fact that this aided the healthful development of her progeny ? 
On the 20th of May the observer removed the cover from the burrow, 
and toward evening Tigrina began to restore it. She reached out her hind 
legs, feeling for material, and first drew in an acorn cup and proceeded to 
fasten it. On the following morning (May 21st) a broad funnel shaped 
ring had been built around the tube, but not covering it. By May 24th 
the spider had made a room above her burrow lightly covered with moss. 
The male of Tigrina is a handsome fellow and nearly as large as the 
female. In color he is a light snuff brown, with dashes of dark purple, 
while the legs are striped like a tiger’s. The female is nearly black. The 
male takes as much pains in building its domicile as the female; indeed, 
one confined in a jar entirely outdid the female in making a tasteful retreat. 
He utilized a little twining plant by winding his web around it, thus mak- 
ing a living green bower over his tube. 
A New Hampshire Lycosa whose species is unknown was taken from 
a burrow sixteen inches deep by Mrs. Treat, and placed in a glass jar with 
five inches of moist earth well pressed down. It soon commenced 
to dig a burrow next the glass, giving a fine opportunity to see 
- it work. It dug the earth loose with its mandibles and with the 
fore feet compressed it into a pellet. It again turned, seized the ball in 
its mandibles, necessitating a third turn, and then came to the edge of the 
Lycosa 
Tigrina. 
Maternal 
Ingenuity 
Lycosa 
Digging. 
1 American Naturalist, August, 1879, page 488. 
