1. NEST OF SPIDER WITH TRAP-DOOR. 2. MYGALE HENTZII. 3. TARANTULA OF TEXAS. Do them to behave pre O insects really possess mind? If not, what cisely as reasoning beings? Some time since I read in the Scientific Record of Harper's Magazine the following passage: "M. Félix Dujardin, of Rheims, verified in the nervous system of insects a centre of true brain, above the throat, imbedded among air tubes, salivary glands, and fat. Hardened by alcohol or spirits of turpentine, its form and structure appeared beneath the microscope in regular convolutions, like those of our own cerebral hemispheres, and the outside pulp removed left nerve tracts winding into a white and firmer substance, like the nucleus of the white invertebrata." If any one will closely observe the behavior of insects, especially ants, wasps, or spiders, he will not be at all startled or surprised with the announcement that these humble creatures have brains like our own. Many spiders build for themselves homes, not merely nests to rear the young, like birds and some of the higher animals, but homes to which they become strongly attached. In the first paper I gave some account of a pet spider which built a tower above her burrow, and therefore I named her Tarantula turricula. Just as I was closing the sketch, she became the mother of a numerous family. As far as I have observed, the young of other members of this family escape from their cocoon through the seam which extends around the central part; it is thinner at the seam, and splits nearly around the whole circumference, so that the young come out in a body; but with this species they cut a smooth round hole in the cocoon, just large enough for them to come out one by one. During the past eight weeks I have kept close watch of this curious family, carefully noting the behavior of the mother, who, like "The old woman that lived in a shoe, Had so many children she didn't know what to do." The first three weeks the little things | the mother looks with the innumerable are piled all over the head and thorax of little ragged cast-off dresses hanging all the mother, often completely blinding over the lines of web. her. They seem ambitious to reach the highest point, and jostle and crowd one another in their efforts to be at the top of the heap. The mother patiently endures it for a time, but when they become too thick over her eyes, she takes her long fore-legs, which she uses as feelers or hands, and reaches up and scrapes off an armful, and holds them straight in front of her, as if looking at them, and perhaps giving them a homily on manners. Soon she gently releases them, slowly opening her arms, and they quietly take their places around the edge of the tower, where they usually remain until the mother goes below, when they all follow. Upon her re-appearance they are again stationed upon her back. When they were two weeks old they strung innumerable lines of web across the mother's back; this I soon found was to enable them to dispose of their baby dresses. Up to this time they had been piled upon her abdomen as well as upon her thorax, but now these little creatures, as if by common consent, entirely forsook the abdomen as a resting-place, and devoted it exclusively to a dressing-room. Sometimes two or three are divesting themselves at the same time. They fasten themselves by a short line of web to one of the lines which they have strung across the mother, and this holds them firmly while they undress. The skin cracks all around the thorax, and is held only by the front edge; next the abdomen is freed, and now comes the struggle to free the legs. The little one works and kicks vigorously, and seems to have no very easy task, but earnest perseverance brings it out of the old dress in about fifteen minutes, but it comes out perfectly exhausted and almost lifeless. I take one upon my hand, where it lies limp and helpless for several minutes, and then it gradually comes back to life, and is soon as bright and active as before. Whence came the knowledge that impelled these little creatures to forsake the abdomen as a resting-place, and devote it to this purpose? In the soft, helpless condition that the removal of the skin causes, it would not do for the stronger ones to be moving about and mixing up with the weaker. It is fully a week before they have all moulted, and odd enough Naturalists tell us that young spiders kill each other. But with this species I could detect no such tendency. I kill one, and lay it upon the edge of the tower, and many of the little ones crawl over it, but pay no attention to it whatever. Finally the mother notices it, feels and examines it with one of her fore-legs, and then takes it in her mandibles and shoots it across the jar, where she is in the habit of throwing refuse material. Neither will the young pay any attention to a fly that I kill and lay in their path; but if the mother holds it in her mandibles and crushes it, they crowd around it, and seem to be sipping the juices. And in the absence of other food the mother crushes some of her own babies, and holds them so that the little cannibals can suck the juices. The young do not leave the mother all at the same time, but they go out in detachments. When three weeks old about a dozen manifest a disposition to leave the maternal home. They run up on the highest point of a plant, and remain there until I set the jar where the plants can lean against the trunk of a tree, and now they speedily run up to the branches. The rest are quiet, staying with the mother a week longer, but now she manifests a disposition to send them adrift. She is no longer quiet and patient, but frequently picks one up and throws it across the jar, yet seems to be careful not to injure it. She behaves much in the same way that the higher animals do in weaning their young. It is now a bright, sunny day in early November, and a large proportion of these little creatures-fully fifty-seem to be in great haste to leave. Like the first, they also run up the body of a tree, and I see no more of them. But in the spring I shall probably find many little burrows in the neighborhood of the tree, where they have settled down as staid housekeepers. Some twenty-five or thirty are still with the mother, and it is now cold and disagreeable weather, and these show no disposition to leave. I remove the plants from the jar, that I may be better enabled to watch their proceedings. The mother has cleared the web from her body, and looks plump and bright. She sits on the top of her tower, with the little ones stationed thickly all around the edge; seldom now are they resting upon her. But when she goes within her burrow, they all follow. For several days past, whenever I have given her food, she quickly disappears with it; and this, no doubt, is the reason why they follow her. Upon her re-appearance I see that a few have availed themselves of the opportunity of being carried up upon her back; but they do not remain there. One of these little creatures has resolved to set up housekeeping in the jar without taking its allotted period of roving life, and its performances are the most amusing of anything I have ever witnessed in insect life. It is making its tube down the side of the jar, so that the glass forms about a third of the wall, thus enabling me to see the movements of the little builder at all times. The tube is very small, scarcely onefourth of an inch in diameter. In two days it has excavated an inch below the surface, and built up a tiny tower fully half an inch high. The tower is made wholly of earth and web. This diminutive architect brings the little pellets in its mandibles, and those it does not wish to use in the tower it lets fall down by the side. Unlike its mother and other elderly relatives, it does not shoot the earth to a distance, but stands on the top of its tower, and opens its mandibles and lets it drop; at the same time it throws apart its legs or arms, as if that would help it to dispose of the earth. This movement is very baby-like. But with age will come the wily movements of the mother, shooting the earth away, and using moss and sticks for the better concealment of the home. they remain with the mother. While with her they crowd together, walk over each other, and never have any quarrels. At the end of the sixth week most of the remaining young are anxious to go out in the world. It is a pleasant, sunny day, and I again give them the opportunity; and now only five besides the little housekeeper are left behind, and the next day I release two of these, leaving only four, and one of these has also concluded to settle down and build a cozy home in the jar. It builds precisely like the first, and has the same trouble with its inquisitive little brothers. It has chosen the site of its domicile not two inches distant from its sister's, and here they sit contentedly on the top of their towers, often facing each other, and watching the tiny scavenger beetles that breed in the jar and live on the refuse insects thrown out by the mother. These beetles are food for the young housekeepers, yet I think they are not to their taste as much as flies, but they dare not yet attack a living house-fly. If one comes near them, they quickly dodge within their burrows. If I kill a fly and lay it on the tower, either will try to take it within, but it is impossible to do this with the wings and legs adhering; yet it is wonderful to see their attempts. They turn it first one way, and then another, and get beneath it and pull. I remove the wings and legs, and lay it back, when it is soon carried below. After a few hours the dry carcass is brought up and thrown out. Wishing to photograph the mother's tower, I found it necessary to remove it from the jar. This seems to nonplus her; she does not know what to make of it. All at once her house is on a level with the ground. She becomes timid, and runs out of sight at my approach. But after a while she comes up and begins to investigate matters. She examines the various things scattered over the surface. Now she finds the long legs of a grasshopper, and concludes these will do toward erect Yet this small housekeeper has rights, and means to maintain them. Her actions say most emphatically that she has shut herself apart from the rest of the family, and will not be annoyed by them. Frequently one of her brothers or sisters, meandering about, comes to this little towing another tower. I do not offer her any er, and not often will one pass by without going up and looking in. This always seems to exasperate the small madam. She drops her work, and springs from the top of her tower, and sometimes chases the running brother half way across the jar, and then turns and goes back to work. This is the more remarkable as no such disposition is ever manifested so long as fresh sticks or moss, but let her work with what she can find. She comes across a moth about an inch in length, which she has rejected as food, and it is stiff and dry; so she utilizes it by working it in with the other material. She is a persevering builder, and in about two hours has reared her domicile half an inch above the surface. I return the tower, which is so firmly made that it has not been injured by the transportation, and place it in position as nearly as I can. Very soon this wise architect comprehends the situation. She sees where the welding must be made, and holds the tower firmly in place, and presses against it with her body, while round and round she goes, securing it with a strong web. Satisfied with its stability, she takes her position on the top, sitting there very complacently, evidently expecting to be furnished with flies, which by this time-the last of November-it is no easy matter to quickly than she otherwise would. Sometimes she manages to hold two in her mandibles at the same time. All the young have left her, and now she sets her house in order. She comes to the top with a bundle of the little ragged dresses, bound together with web, and shoots them across the jar. Bundles of little sticks and loose earth follow in rapid succession. She works with energetic perseverance for an hour or more, and then stops and assumes her favorite position-sitting across the top of her towerand proceeds to make her toilet. First procure. I But occasionally there comes a warm, sunny day, when flies are on the wing; and now opening the door, a number are sure to come in and fly to the windows, where I easily capture them. They are much larger than house-flies, and two or three will make her a good meal. put half a dozen in the jar, and cover it so they can not escape. And now madam is on the alert; she watches them as a cat watches a mouse, she crouches, and moves cautiously, and when one alights, she pounces upon it, and not often does she miss her prey; but when she does, it is very amusing to see the astonishment she displays. She slowly straightens up, and feels beneath her. Satisfied that the game is gone, she now becomes much more wary, and acts as if she did not care for flies at all. She allows one to come so near that it almost touches her before she springs upon it. When there are several flies in the jar, she disposes of one much more one leg and then another is passed between the palpi several times, and all the while her mandibles are at work as if chewing, and moisture works up between them so that it is plainly visible. Many other members of this large family (Lycosida) have very interesting habits, and are well worth observing. One of the largest species found at the North is Zycosa carolinensis, Hentz. According to Dr. McCook, this species has a wide range, being found all along the Atlantic sea-board, and west as far as Ohio. Fine specimens of this large spider were expressed to me from New Hampshire, and are now hibernating among a host of their relatives in my arachnidan menagerie. My menagerie is inclosed with a dense circular hedge of arbor vitæ, fifteen feet in height and a hundred and fifty feet in circumference. In the centre is a maple-tree with drooping branches. Or ney is to confine each in a glass bottle. The bottle should be about the diameter of the burrow in which the spider lived. The great Zycosa from New Hampshire was sent in this way, and then packed securely in a wooden box, with many other speci As soon as they arrived I put the largest female Zycosa in a glass candy jar, hoping I could make a house pet of namental plants are her. But she had come from a grassy scattered about, and meadow, where her burrow was fourteen two bird baths are inches deep, and around the top she had prettily arranged-woven grass and weeds to the height of large shallow earth- four inches; and could she be content colored pans are set with a little six-by-twelve jar, with only into the ground, and about six inches of earth? She seemed to gracefultwining plants scorn the arrangement. I kept her conare festooned above fined several days. She was not at all them. The birds seem afraid, and would drink and take flies, to appreciate these cool, but she would not build, and even turned pretty baths, and their from the top of her own domicile, which splashing keeps the was sent with her, and made so firmly earth so moist that the that it was not injured by the removal. plants grow luxuriant- Round and round she went, standing on ly all about them. In this retreat I have the tips of her hind-feet, while her forebrought together a large number of bur- feet stretched up fully four inches against rowing spiders, whose habits I wish to the glass, making her look quite formidainvestigate, and to do this successfully I ble; but she is perfectly harmless, never must devise some means to keep them in- attempting to bite in the handling. tact from their enemies. For this purpose I have a number of oval glasses (such as gardeners use in starting early vegetables), with a small opening at the top, which I can close at pleasure. These I set over each burrow to keep my pets from the ravages of their relentless enemy, the digger-wasp. In this way I hope to be able to learn much more of the habits of other members of this curious and interesting family. Del Despairing of her ever becoming contented in the jar, I put her in the menagerie with the rest. I first made a hole two or three inches deep, and set the top of her New Hampshire house over it. This was better. She took to it at once, and commenced to fix up. She soon welded New Hampshire-soil and grass-fast to New Jersey, and was now satisfied and happy, and did not shut herself in for the winter until late in November. Her burrow is Most of these spiders readily adapt them- only about eight inches deep, and yet selves to their new surroundings. I some- there is a marked increase of temperature times transplant the nest entire without in it. It was observed by several persons disturbing the occupant. But when they on placing the hand at the mouth of the are to be transported long distances, this tube. One cold morning-only twenty is not practicable. I have found the most degrees above zero-I introduced a thersatisfactory way to send them on a jour-mometer into the burrow. It ran up to |