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their doors ajar at night, with the spiders posted 

 on the look-out at the narrow opening. This is 

 borne out by my observations on captive spiders, to 

 w^hich I shall allude shortly. 



When at Hyeres on the 11th of May, 1873, the 

 evening being very warm and a bright moon shining, 

 I went at 8.30 p.m. with my father and sister to see 

 what the spiders would be doing on a hedge bank 

 where we had previously marked five cork and eight 

 wafer nests. The moonlight did not fall upon this 

 spot, but I was provided with a lantern, and by its 

 light the nests at first appeared to be tightly closed, 

 but we soon perceived first one and then another with 

 the door slightly raised, ready to close on the smallest 

 alarm, whether from a footfall or from the flickering 

 of the lamp. When the light of the lantern was 

 steady it did not appear to frighten the spiders in the 

 least, even when brought to within a few inches of 

 the door,* and this enabled me to watch them very 

 closely. On either side of the raised door of one of 

 the wafer nests I could see the feet of the spider 

 projecting, and just at that moment I caught sight of 

 a beetle close at hand, feeding on the topmost spray 

 of some small plant below. Using every precaution, 

 I contrived to gather the spray without shaking off 

 the beetle, and gradually pushed it nearer and nearer 

 to the nest. When it almost touched the lip of the 

 nest the door flew open, and the spider snatched at 

 the beetle and dragged it down below. 



For a few seconds the door remained tightly closed, 



* TLis had been observed before both by my father aud Mr. Dillon wlien 

 watching the trap-door spiders at night at Mentone. 



