PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 135 



workmanlike manner in which the Sun-bird visited them all. 

 Mr. Scott Elliot is of opinion, however, that this plant is also 

 visited by night-flving moths of the Sphinx order. 



The Rev. G. A. Frank Knight, M.A., exhibited a number of 

 nests of the Trap-door Spider (Cteniza coementcvria, Latr.), which 

 he had gathered at Hyeres, in the South of France, during April, 

 1896. The most westerly of the health-resorts of the E-iviera, 

 Hveres is not situated on the sea-coast, but at a distance of three 

 miles from the shore, while the large fortified city of Toulon is 

 about five or six miles still further towards the west. At the 

 back of the town there rises a curious precipitous hill, flanked with 

 crags on two of its sides, and crowned with a ruined fortress. 

 From this " coign of vantage " there is an extensive view of the 

 wall of mountains towards the north, while southwards the eye 

 sweeps over the undulating country dotted with the groups of 

 palm trees for which Hyeres is famous, till it rests upon the long 

 line of the Mediterranean, the blue expanse of which is broken 

 here and there by groups of small islands. This hillside is lined 

 with many a path, and on the banks of these shady walks, amongst 

 the reddish soil, the trap-door spider makes its home. 



Mr. Knight described how wonderfully the spider manages to 

 conceal its nest, making the lid of its hole to correspond most 

 closely with the character of the surrounding soil. Indeed, once 

 the door is closed, it is almost hopeless to attempt to look for the 

 orifice in the ground. The specimens exhibited showed that the 

 external coat of the nest is coarse and crumpled, more like the 

 rough bark of a tree than a spider's web. But inside there is a 

 layer of a very different character. It is smooth to the eye, and of 

 a silken softness to the touch, and when examined by a microscope 

 it is seen that the surface is composed of minute threads twisted 

 together wdthout the least apparent order. The subterranean 

 galleries constructed by these spiders are sometimes of great length, 

 and tortuous to such an extent that traces of them are soon lost. 

 In connection with the formation of the lid — the characteristic 

 feature of the homes of these spiders — Mr. Knight pointed out a 

 fact which had come under his observation. While removinsf the 

 superfluous earth and pebbles from the nest, after it had been dug 

 out from the ground, he found that, in many cases, the spider had 

 adopted a plan of making sure that the door would shut easily and 



