316 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



bare of grass, sloping in such a manner as to carry oif the 

 water, and of a firm soil, without rocks or small stones. 

 She digs a gallery a foot or two in depth, and of a diameter 

 (equal throughout) sufficient to admit of her easily passing. 

 She lines this with a tapestry of silk glued to the walls. 

 The door, which is circular, is constructed of many layers 

 of earth kneaded, and bound together with silk. Exter- 

 nally, it is flat and rough, corresponding to the earth 

 around the entrance, for the purpose, no doubt, of conceal- 

 ment : on the inside it is convex, and tapestried thickly 

 with a web of fine silk. The threads of this door-tapestry 

 are prolonged, and strongly attached to the upper side of 

 the entrance, forming an excellent hinge, which, when 

 pushed open by the spider, shuts again by its own weight, 

 without the aid of spring hinges. When the spider is at 

 home, and her door forcibly opened by an intruder, she 

 pulls it strongly inwards, and even when half-opened often 

 snatches it out of the hand ; but when she is foiled in this, 

 she retreats to the bottom of her den, as her last resource.* 

 Eossi ascertained that the female of an allied species 

 (^Mygale sauvagesii, Late.), found in Corsica, lived in one of 

 these nests, with a numerous posterity. He destroyed one 

 of these doors to observe whether a new one would be ]nade, 

 which it was : but it was fixed immoveablj^ without a 

 hinge ; the spider, no doubt, fortifying herself in this man- 

 ner till she thought she might re-open it without danger.f 



" The Eev. Eevett Shepherd has often noticed, in the 

 fen ditches of Norfolk, a very large spider (the species not 

 yet determined) which actually forms a raft for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining its pre}' with more facilit}^. Keeping its 

 station upon a ball of weeds about three inches in diameter, 

 probably held together by slight silken cords, it is wafted 

 along the surface of the water upon this floating island, 

 which it quits the moment it sees a drowning insect. The 

 booty thus seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under 



* Mem. Soc. d'Hist. Nat. de Paris, An. vii. 



t Ibid., p. 125, and Latreille, Hist. Xat. Gener. \dii. p. 163. 



