he same place.

Having thus secured his spider, he selects a particular spot of earth, the
most sunny and warm, and begins to dig a pit. He works with all his might,
digging up the earth with his formidable mandibles, and throwing it out
with his feet, as a dog throws out the earth when scratching after a
rabbit. Every few seconds he ascends, tail first, out of his hole, clears
away the earth about its mouth with his legs, and spreads it to a distance
on the surface. When he has dug the hole, perhaps two inches deep, he
comes forth eagerly, goes off for his spider, drags it down from its
lodgment, and brings it to the mouth of his hole. He now lets himself down
the hole, tail first, and then, putting forth his head, takes the spider,
and turns it into the most suitable position for dragging it in.

It must be observed that this hole is made carefully of only about the
width of his body, and therefore the spider can not be got into it except
lengthwise, and then by stout pulling. Well, he turns it lengthwise, and
seizing it, commences dragging it in. At first, you would imagine this
impossible; but the sand-wasp is strong, and the body of the spider is
pliable. You soon see it disappear. Down into the cylindrical hole it
goes, and anon you perceive the sand-wasp pushing up its black head beside
it; and having made his way out he again sets to work, and pushes the
spider with all his force to the bottom of the den.

And what is all this for? Is the spider laid up in his larder for himself?
No; it is food for his children? It is their birth-place, and their supply
of provision while they are in the larva state.

We have been all along calling this creature he, for it has a most
masculine look; but it is in reality a she; it is the female sand-wasp,
and all this preparation is for the purpose of laying her eggs. For this
she has sought and killed the spider, and buried it here. She has done it
all wittingly. She has chosen one particular spider, and that only, for
that is the one peculiarly adapted to nourish her young.

So here it is safely stored away in her den; and she now descends, tail
first, and piercing the pulpy abdomen of the spider, she deposits her egg
or eggs. That being done, she carefully begins filling in the hole with
earth. She rakes it up with her legs and mandibles, and fills in the hole,
every now and then turning round and going backward into the hole to stamp
down the earth with her feet, and to ra