222 SUPPLEMENT TO 



passed the greater part of that period on the surface 

 of the earth in a silk tube ending in an oblong en- 

 largement, utterly unlike her normal habitation. 

 Finally, when I had done the digging for her, she 

 furnished the cylindrical hole I had bored in the 

 earth with a silk lining, and made it secure with her 

 own two typical doors. 



The figure-of-S cell which she constructed at first, 

 and subsequently modified until it became the oblong 

 enlargement of the tube alluded to above, was totally 

 unlike any form of trap-door spider's nest known to 

 me; but in its ultimate shape (which resembled that 

 of the glass part of a thermometer with an oblong 

 bulb, save that it Avas curved and not straight), I 

 think we may trace some resemblance to the silk tube 

 which is made by Atijpus, and of wliich a figure is 

 given at A, Plate XIII., p. 183 ; the mouth of the tube 

 made by my captive was, however, open. It is curious, 

 also, when we recall this resemblance, to note that 

 Mr. Brown has recorded, in his observations alluded 

 to above (p. 185), that the tube of one of the nests of 

 Atypiis, which he brought home in a collapsed state, 

 showed a somewhat similar tendency to become dis- 

 tended. For, on opening the box in which they had 

 been carried, he perceived a movement throughout 

 the tube as if it were becoming inflated, and though 

 this inflation appeared to subside shortly after, yet the 

 following morning the tube had recovered its cylin- 

 drical shape. I am tempted to believe, though this 

 is mere conjecture, that the box in which these tubes 

 were put contained moisture, and that their apparent 

 inflation was due to the same hygrometric action 



