utinous. Its size is
that of an average cherry. An observant eye will notice, running
horizontally around the middle, a fold which a needle is able to raise
without breaking it. This hem, generally undistinguishable from the
rest of the surface, is none other than the edge of the circular mat,
drawn over the lower hemisphere. The other hemisphere, through which
the youngsters will go out, is less well fortified: its only wrapper is
the texture spun over the eggs immediately after they were laid.

The work of spinning, followed by that of tearing, is continued for a
whole morning, from five to nine o'clock. Worn out with fatigue, the
mother embraces her dear pill and remains motionless. I shall see no
more to-day. Next morning, I find the Spider carrying the bag of eggs
slung from her stern.

Henceforth, until the hatching, she does not leave go of the precious
burden, which, fastened to the spinnerets by a short ligament, drags
and bumps along the ground. With this load banging against her heels,
she goes about her business; she walks or rests, she seeks her prey,
attacks it and devours it. Should some accident cause the wallet to
drop off, it is soon replaced. The spinnerets touch it somewhere,
anywhere, and that is enough: adhesion is at once restored.

When the work is done, some of them emancipate themselves, think they
will have a look at the country before retiring for good and all. It is
these whom we meet at times, wandering aimlessly and dragging their bag
behind them. Sooner or later, however, the vagrants return home; and
the month of August is not over before a straw rustled in any burrow
will bring the mother up, with her wallet slung behind her. I am able
to procure as many as I want and, with them, to indulge in certain
experiments of the highest interest.

It is a sight worth seeing, that of the Lycosa dragging her treasure
after her, never leaving it, day or night, sleeping or waking, and
defending it with a courage that strikes the beholder with awe. If I
try to take the bag from her, she presses it to her breast in despair,
hangs on to my pincers, bites them with her poison-fangs. I can hear
the daggers grating on the steel. No, she would not allow herself to be
robbed of the wallet with impunity, if my fingers were not supplied
with an implement.

By dint of pulling and shaking the pill with the forceps, I take it
from the Lycosa, who protests furiously. I fling her in exchange a pill
taken fro