TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 199 



with the block of eartli in which it hiy, all the way 

 from Visalia, a town about 350 miles south of San 

 Francisco, where he had taken it ; the nest and spider 

 travelled safe to London enclosed in an empty cocoa- 

 tina tin, 4^ inches deep, and 2| across. 



The nest was then entire, for these spiders appear 

 to make singularly shallow tubes ; and it might have 

 remained so up to the present day had it not been 

 for the rash curiosity of a chambermaid in the London 

 hotel where Mr. Tread well was staying, who, smitten 

 with a great desire to learn what the heavy little box 

 which came from the land of gold might contain, 

 proceeded to examine the earth, when the sudden 

 appearance of the spider frightened her so much that 

 box and nest and all were thrown with a crash upon 

 the floor. 



Were it not for this unlucky incident I might have 

 seen a complete specimen of this curious nest ; but as 

 it was, though the spider miraculously escaped unin- 

 jured, the bottom of the nest was pounded into dust, 

 and onl}^ the upper portion remained intact. 



Both this nest and that sent to me by M. Puis, 

 were of the true cork type, and presented a solid door 

 with a bevelled edge, fitting into the correspondingly 

 bevelled lip of the tube, and shutting flush with 

 the surfiice of the ground. The lining of the tube 

 was strong and thick, but soft and silky to the 

 touch. 



The tube itself in Mr. Tread well's specimen, when 

 intact, cannot have measured more than 3^ inches in 

 length ; and we learn from Dr. Lanzwert, who col- 

 lected the other specimen, that the average length of 

 these nests does not exceed three inches. Dr. 



