birds of prey that the female
is the larger and bolder; the care of the young devolves largely upon
her. Yes, there is another exception: Among the fishes, the females are,
as a rule, larger than the males; the immense number of eggs which they
carry brings this about.

There are always exceptions to this dominance of the female in the
insect world. We cannot corner Nature and keep her cornered. She would
not be Nature if we could. With the fireflies, it is the male that
dominates; the female is a little soft, wingless worm on the ground,
always in the larval state.

In the plant world, also, the male as a rule is dominant. Behold the
showy catkins of the chestnuts, the butternuts, the hazelnuts, the
willows, and other trees. The stamens of most flowers are numerous and
conspicuous. Our Indian corn carries its panicle of pollen high above
the silken tresses which mother the future ear.

One day I dug up a nest which was occupied by a spider with her brood of
young ones. I took up a large block of earth weighing ten pounds or
more, and sank it in a box of earth of its own kind. I kept it in the
house under observation for a week, hoping that at some hour of day or
night the spider would come out. But she made no sign. My ingenious
friend arranged the same mechanical contrivance over the door which he
had used successfully before. But the latch was never lifted. Madam
Spider sulked or bemoaned her fate at the bottom of her den. At the end
of a week I broke open the nest and found her alone. She had evidently
devoured all her little ones.

I kept two nests with a spider in each in the house for a week, and in
neither case did the occupant ever leave its nest.

Apparently the young spiders begin to dig nests of their own when they
are about half-grown. As to where they stay, or how they live up to that
time, I have no clue. The young we found in several nests were very
small, not more than an eighth of an inch long. Of the size and
appearance of the male spider, and where he keeps himself, I could get
no clue.

One morning I went with my guide down to the spider territory, and saw
him try to entice or force a spider out of her den. The morning previous
he had beguiled several of them to come up to the opening by thrusting a
straw down the burrow and teasing them with it till in self-defense they
seized it with their fangs and hung on to it till he drew them to the
surface. But this morning the trick would not work.