TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 121 



"be fastened down with a pin, a second door will be 

 found next day by the side of the former one. No 

 doubt spiders not unfrequently find their doors 

 blocked up by a fall of earth, and are thus obliged 

 either to make a new opening or to prolong the old 

 tube. 



I once fastened open the surface doors of three of 

 the double-door nests by passing a thread through 

 the silk of the door and tying it back to some twigs 

 above. The doors were thus turned backwards, and 

 the aperture of the tubes, which lay in a vertical ter- 

 race wall, exposed to view. 



Next day, after a night of very heavy rain, I found 

 the doors as I had left them, but in one nest the 

 lip of the tube had been dragged inwards so as 

 partially to close the tube ; in the second nothing 

 appeared to have been done, but in the third nest a 

 new covering had been very cleverly extemporized 

 out of three fallen oUve-leaves, which were loosely 

 spun together and attached by one or two threads to 

 the margin of the tube. This formed an admirable 

 concealment, but did not move freely as a door, the 

 web being too imperfect Two days later, however, it 

 was comiDleted and had become a perfect door, mov- 

 ing on a hinge just within and below that of the 

 former door, which still remained as I had fastened 

 it. The other nests remained in the same condi- 

 tion as before, only that a little moss had been 

 dragged into the mouth of the tube of the nest, 

 which had been partially closed with its own lip. 



The extreme reluctance which these spiders show 

 to abandon their dwellings is curiously exemplified 

 by what follows. 



