168 
NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
sudden leaps for prey. If you rob them forcibly 
with the pincers, they are frantic. They are eas¬ 
ily fooled, too; if you take their sac and offer 
them another they do not know the difference. 
They will even snatch a cork or flour pill in their 
flurry, attach it hurriedly to their spinnerets, and 
make for safety. 
“Another thing you will be very likely to note 
within a few days; this is a mother Lycosa sun¬ 
ning her eggs. You will find her literally stand¬ 
ing on her head in her pit, with her hind legs 
thrust out over the ramparts bearing her white 
pill upward to the life-giving rays of the sun. 
Motionless hour after hour she remains, save for 
the movement necessary to shift the egg-sac occa¬ 
sionally so that all parts of it may be equally 
heated. Nor is this just a one-day performance; 
through the sunny hours of every day for a pe¬ 
riod of three or four weeks the little creature will 
be found patiently at her post. Tiresome and 
tedious enough the effort must be, but if the little 
Lycosa ever envies the birds sitting comfortably 
in their nests to hatch their offspring, no one ever 
knows it. 
“ If you look closely at the white pill, you will 
note a little raised fold running about its middle. 
This is the edge of the circular mat drawn up 
around the bowl to keep the eggs from spilling. 
When the little spiderlings are ready to come out 
