23G Transactions. 



enough for her to pass through, but that after a while she neglects 

 to enlage one of them, and only attends to the other. I have seen small 

 tubes with two very fine doors; large tubes with two proper doors are 

 rare. Why the spider should build a door at each end of her nest is 

 hard to say. I believe that she must lose sight of the fact that she has 

 already made one door, and, as there is no ending or terminus to the 

 nest built under a stone, etc., as in a normal nest built in an earth 

 bank, she naturally makes a door at each end of the tube. Afterwards 

 she uses only one door and neglects the other. This suggestion credits 

 the spider with little intelligence. 



How Bain and Wind affect the Nest. 



In exposed situations banks are gradually worn away by the elements; 

 consequently nests are frequently seen blown half out of the bank 

 (fig. 14, lowest). The spider has no remedy for this, except to spread 

 cementitious mud-mixture over that part of her home which is laid bare. 

 Fig. 14, lowest, shows a nest in the process of being denuded. Nests in 

 this state are very conspicuous, and I have known a spider to extend her 

 tube farther into the bank, so as to make it twice as long as before, the 

 old door, &c, still being used (fig. 14, middle). Water seldom enters the 

 tubular part of the nest, although the silk often becomes thoroughly 

 saturated. 



About the Male and his Nest. (Fig. 2.) 



As the male is much smaller than his mate, he uses a smaller nest. I say 

 " uses," because I believe that he seldom builds a nest of his own, and then 

 only under certain circumstances. Firstly, I should say that the female 

 does not eat her mate after he has accomplished his purpose. Repeatedly 

 1 have kept males and females through the breeding season, and in every 

 ease the female refrained from dining on her lord. I have found males 

 living in the same bank with females, and, although food was scarce, the 

 male was untouched. Hence I know that this cannibalistic male-eating 

 habit is not in vogue among M. distinctus. 



It is only when the male is living in a small colony or away from the 

 females that lie is found in a nest which is in good repair, well hidden, 

 and not too big or too small for him. Males living among big colonies 

 are more often than not found in nests which are in disrepair. Especi- 

 ally* in the breeding season are they so found, for after this is over the 

 males retire into discarded nests, which they soon bring up to a good state 

 of repair. The nests they adopt are those which have lost their occupants 

 by some accident. 



The male is never found in the female's nest with the female, but 

 the courting is done around the mouth of the tube. Evidently the male 

 does not like the idea of trusting his life to his mate; and hie could be 

 ill spared, for, as males of this species appear to be scare, the propaga- 

 tion of young would be slight if every female managed to slay her mate. 



In the breeding season the male wanders over the bank at night, and 

 when day breaks he hie;? himself to an old nest, chink, or cranny, and 

 there awaits night. It is necessary for him to wander about, because 

 the females' nests are so scattered. Although the fewness of male spiders 

 as compared with female ones is sometimes exaggerated, I feel correct 

 in saying that the males are generally in the proportion of about one to 

 thirty females. 



