LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
243 
July 21.— I perceive that the Dauher last men- 
tioned has returned to the phial, and having, no 
doubt, observed that it had been handled, has 
taken out every one of the spiders, which she has 
strewn around, and having tilled the bottle with 
newly-caught spiders, has again sealed it up with 
mud. I think we may infer from this that the 
parent exercises a measure of watchful guardian- 
ship over her young, sealed as they are from her 
sight and direct interference. 
Thus far my journal. The species which selected 
the phial I did not see, and therefore cannot 
identify; the Yellowfoot is the artificer of the shape- 
less masses first referred to ; shapeless, because 
the cells when finished are included in an irregular 
heap of additional mud. At the present time 
the other species of Pelopceus begins to be busy, 
fabricating its more artful thimble-shaped nests. 
It is difficult to convey by words an idea of its 
mode of working ; but its general proceedings are 
as before, as respects bringing the mud, &c. The 
commencement of a cell is made by laying down 
the load, and working it into an oval ridge, one 
extremity of which is to be the apex of the thimble- 
cell. The next row is laid on the ridge, but so as 
to be higher at the apex than at any other part, 
and made slightly concave : when the tip is made, 
the work proceeds regularly by additions to the 
edges, which are smoothly laid on, and always in 
the same slanting direction that had been given at 
first, by raising one end of the incipient oval ; so 
that an unfinished cell in any stage of progress 
appears like a cylinder cut off by a diagonal 
section. This is not casual, but invariable, as the 
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