Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/849

Rh Treat's turret-builder, and she has not only watched the process, but has taken part in it herself.

The pentagonal structure is not the home, it is but the entrance and the watch-tower on top of which the owner delights to sit and make observation of the world about her, with sharp eye to the insect supply. The real home is a burrow several inches deep. The building of the tower is most interesting, the sticks being carefully selected, fastened in place by threads of silk, and each layer covered by a close row of small balls of earth brought up from the bottom of the cave. These balls are laid on the row of sticks, pressed flat and drawn down so as to coat the inside, and when finished, therefore, the tube is smoothly plastered. Then the silken hangings are added, and her home is complete. The towers are two and a half inches high, and are strong enough to be handled.

One builder, who allowed Mrs. Treat to assist by furnishing material, proved herself to be not only very hard to suit, but to have a temper of her own, rejecting sticks that did not please her by flinging them far off, exactly as she habitually disposed of the remains of her meals. This spider, too, lived in harmony with her mate, even in so small quarters as a glass jar. But she had her own residence, into which Mr. Tarantula Turricula might look, but was far too wise to enter. Her motherly cares and anxieties were absorbing in the extreme. The bag of eggs, large as a hazel-nut, was constantly carried about, and placed where it was warmest, in the sunshine, toward the stove, or wherever the heat was. This untiring devotion continued for two months, and when the young were out she took them all on her back.

This close student of spider ways could find no inclination in the baby to kill, much less to eat, one of its own family. She tried them with a freshly killed specimen, but the young would not notice it; and when mamma saw it she examined it carefully, then flung it away with other rubbish. She fed the youngsters by crushing a fly for them.

The most serious charge brought against our little friend is of cruelty to her kind, and especially to her spouse. It would not be surprising if a creature made and equipped for the duty of insect-hunter, and to that end filled with the "rage of killing," should now and then fail to distinguish between friend and foe; but as a matter of fact, though some species may justly be accused of coolness toward their mates, others, on the contrary, live in peace with them. It must be remembered, too, that the female spider is always under the spell of her double duty, to reduce the insects and to preserve the race. As to their relations with others, though in general spider life is solitary, there are instances of gregarious living, as well as of small spiders being not unwelcome