28 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
bunches of bananas, to which they had no doubt resorted as a convenient 
field for capturing prey, and were themselves captured and shipped, hidden 
away among the clusters of fruit. 
In the case of the spider “ Leidy,” described in Vol. II., page 428, the 
only effort made at nest building was a rude burrow which was excavated 
against one side of the box, and which in the course of time was extended 
downward to the bottom of 
the box, and laterally along 
the bottom either way, thus 
forming an irregular cavity. 
Into this it frequently de- 
scended, dividing its time 
between the cave and the 
outside surface. This bur- 
row was entirely destitute of 
a silken lining, although oc- 
casionally the opening at the 
surface would be overspun 
with a thin sheet of spin- 
ningwork. I have seen the same habit in other individuals of the species 
kept in confinement. The only attempt at a nest ever observed by me 
has been this burrow, with an occasional sheeted closure, and more rarely 
a slight silken lining of the interior of the burrow. I believe, therefore, 
that the popular theory that the tarantula makes a trapdoor like the Cal- 
ifornia Cteniza is without foundation in fact, and that its ordinary hab- 
itat is a plain burrow 
like that made by most 
Lycosids. 
The mode of mak- 
ing the burrow was well 
observed by me at vari- 
ous times.! In the act 
of digging the spider 
first used the two leg 
like palps, the digital 
brushes of which are 
well adapted for that 
service. Then the two front feet were brought into play to gather up 
the loose pellets of soil and scrape them into a ball. The first and second 
pairs of legs then closed up around and under the balled mass, compress- 
ing it inside the mandibles. (Fig. 10.) When the pellets had thus been 
gathered and squeezed into a mass, they were held within the extended 
Fic. 10. A tarantula (Mygale) digging out her burrow, 
Fic. 11. Tarantula (Mygale) carrying dirt from her burrow. 
1 Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1887, page 381. 
