234 SIPPLEMENT TO 



whicli had a blackisli liue, owing to tlie presence of 

 the filaments of what I believe to have been some un- 

 developed fungoid growth. The mouth of the tube 

 was open, and frequently surmounted by a short 

 tubular prolongation, commencing at the surface of 

 the ground, which formed a sort of chimney about an 

 inch high and from an inch to an inch and a quarter 

 across ; this was composed of fibres of plants, pine- 

 needles, and especially of a large branching lichen, 

 very common in the neighbourhood of the nests, and 

 all these materials were woven together and kept 

 in place by a few threads of silk spun here and 

 there. 



It was not every nest that was furnished with a 

 chimney, nor were all the chimneys equally complete, 

 for in some cases they consisted merely of a small 

 rim or one-sided lip, while in others they resembled 

 little birds' nests, and were sufiiciently firm and com- 

 pact to permit of my carrying them away. It ap- 

 peared to me that these chimneys served as screens to 

 prevent the loose sand from being sw^pt into the 

 burrows by the wdnds which rage over that open sea- 

 shore plain, and that they w^ere more or less complete 

 in proportion as the exposure was greater or less, and 

 the sand looser or more bound together. 



I captured eight of these spiders, and here, as in 

 the trap-door group, the female alone inhabited the 

 nest. 



Besides this habit, they have other points in com- 

 mon with trap-door spiders ; such, for example, as 

 the resemblance which exists between this nest and 

 that of Therapl/osa Bloudii from Brazil (see p. 188, 

 above), and betw^een the chimney of this Tarantula 



