of the tube — a depth of nearly two decimetres — of an enor- 

 mous spider g-uarding a cocoon of eggs nearly as large as herself. 

 Although I worked all day and laid open more or less perfectly 

 some dozen holes, securing a spider in nearly every one, this 

 proved to be my greatest prize, as no other specimen possessed 

 an egg-cocoon. The general result of these excavations and 

 captures enables me to present a somewhat full account of the 

 history of the species, although many points still need to be 

 investigated. 



The soil of Nantucket is always more or less sandy. This 

 spider digs its holes in almost any open place, but it seems 

 to prefer the sandiest spots and to choose not indeed the 

 loosest soil but the flat spots in the neighborhood of the sand- 

 dunes by the sea-shore ; it is exceedingly common about Coatue; 

 It may be found in the loose sand of the dunes themselves, but 

 in such cases ordinarily seeks the protection of a bunch of beach 

 grass. My only excavations have been upon and in the neigh- 

 borhood of these sand-dunes, but the holes probed in other 

 parts of the island in the firmer soil proved nearly or quite as 

 deep. The holes are always cylindrical, perfectly simple and 

 very nearly, generally quite, vertical ; at the summit they are 

 funnel-shaped to a scarcely perceptible extent, the narrowest 

 portion being at from a quarter to half a centimetre from the 

 surface of the ground, in the holes of the full-grown insects ; 

 below this they increase pretty regularly and very slightly in ' 

 diameter to a depth of from 1^ to neaidy 5 decimetres, the 

 largest being nearly 20 millimetres in diameter ; only one spider 

 is found in a single tube. The accompanying table gives the size 

 of the only five of which I took careful measurements. The 

 figures are in millimetres. 



2fo. Depth. Width at toj}. 



1 167 10 



2 263 9 



3 270 15 



4 205 18 



5 103 4 

 The " width at top " was taken at the very mouth of the 



tube, no notice being taken at the time of the slight diminution 

 in diameter just below the mouth. Nos. 3 and 4 were in rather 



