402 Mr. F. Enock on the 



opening and disappeared : the rent all closed up by next 

 morning. This male managed to escape with his life 

 Dec. 24th, 1884. 



On July 7th, 1884, I dug up three immense tubes 

 containing females, one a forked tube ; this I examined 

 in the evening, and was surprised to find a magnificent 

 male in, too ; no doubt they had been living together 

 since October, 1883. I reset this tube, but have not 

 seen anything of the male since, so conclude his old skin 

 was too valuable to part with. 



The male reared Oct. 9th, 1884, I placed in a large 

 pot, nearly filled with sand, over which I spread some 

 loose moss. From the thickness and width of the silken 

 carpet I should imagine the spider had been walking 

 round and round all night. It had made a very flimsy 

 horizontal tube, about an inch and a half long, among 

 the moss (examples), in which it hid during the daytime, 

 coming out at dusk to resume its journey round the pot. 

 I generally found it had constructed a very frail covering, 

 I suppose at the approach of daylight. It came out 

 nearly every night until January 17th, 1885, when I 

 found it dead. 



Another of the males found in its own tube lived in 

 good health for two months, when one morning, at 

 9 a.m., I found it almost dead, its abdomen dry and 

 shrivelled up. I gave him a good shower-bath from a 

 fine rose water-pot, and at 2 p.m. the abdomen was fully 

 distended, and the spider as active and as savage as 

 ever he had been — at 9 p.m. going his rounds — and lived 

 some time after. 



Although I offered flies to these wandering males, not 

 one would accept my hospitality ; a cold shower-bath 

 seemed to do them more good than anything else. From 

 the ease with which the males can climb I believe that 

 most of them find their way to the tubes of the females 

 the same night as they emerge from their tubes, as they 

 are always in close proximity to those of the females ; 

 some marvellous power leading them to the tubes of 

 mature females. 



I have tried putting males in pots which contain im- 

 pregnated females, with the result that, instead of the 

 sudden stop on coming into contact with the tube, they 

 immediately run away as fast as i)ossible. 



I think I have gone through all my notes respecting 



