The Silken Trellis of the Narbonne Lycosa

If the sun be fierce or if rain threaten, the Lycosa closes the entrance to her dwelling with a silken trellis-work, wherein she embeds different matters, often the remnants of victims which she has devoured. The ancient Gael nailed the heads of his vanquished enemies to the door of his hut. In the same way, the fierce Spider sticks the skulls of her prey into the lid of her cave. These lumps look very well on the ogre's roof; but we must be careful not to mistake them for warlike trophies. The animal knows nothing of our barbarous bravado. Everything at the threshold is used indiscriminately: fragments of Locust, vegetable remains and especially partciles of earth. A Dragon-fly's head baked by the sun is as good as a bit of gravel and no better.
~The Life of the Spider, The Narbonne Lycosa: The Burrow, J.H. Fabre
(My text is New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1918)