ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 145 



taken by a spider in another tnbe. The fangs missed grasping 

 it at the first *' pass," and sounded against the polished segments of 

 the abdomen as the finger-nail against silk. 



Another example may be mentioned. On the 17th of the 

 following October, after finding out that the tube was inhabited 

 by gently stroking it with a pine leaf, I put on it a small field- 

 cricket with one jumping leg removed. The spider came up 

 and after some manoeuvring inside the tube struck at the cricket, 

 but it escaped. Another cricket was held on the tube by one of 

 its legs. The spider seized it firmly with the fangs. The cricket 

 seemed to be instantly paralyzed, for it made no struggle what- 

 ever. The hole in the tube was torn, I judge, by the feet, inas- 

 much as the fangs retained their grasp on the cricket. This 

 longitudinal rent, 13 mm. long, was not repaired after fifteen 

 minutes, but was repaired perfectly when I next saw the tube 

 several days later. 



I have already described the seizure of a house-fly by my first 

 captive specimen. Another captive took a fly into her tube and 

 closed the rent before going below with her prize. The spider 

 whose tube is sketched in Fig. 2 caught a large blue-bottle Decem- 

 ber 16th, presumably in the same way. The fly was put into the 

 jar and the jar closed. About three hours after, the fly had dis- 

 appeared, and the next morning what remained of it after the 

 spider had chewed it to her satisfaction was seen in a little ball 

 on the outside of the tube near its upper end. 



In further proof of the character of the food of Atypus, a 

 word or two mav be added about the leavinijjs of her feasts. It 

 is well-nigh invariable to find loosely adherent to the outer wall 

 of the tube a little below its upper extremity (see Plate, Figs. I, 

 II, IV, a) the remains of insects. These do not seem to be pur- 

 posely attached to the tube, but to be put outside much as exca- 

 vated earth is, and accordingly they are often seen on the ground 

 at the foot of the tube. Those that adhere to the tube are prob- 

 ably caught by the silk fibres on the margin of the rent as they 

 pass out. The leavings of a single feast are frequently seen to 

 be bound together with silk. One tube, taken November 22d, 



