life-histori/ of Att/pus piceus. 415 



writes, " I am unable to conjecture what the significance 

 of these branched tubes may be." My own opinion is 

 that when the aerial portion of the tulje becomes flat- 

 tened and fixed to the earth, the spider, being unable to 

 "inflate" it at the return of the warm weather, imme- 

 diately sets about constructing another, thus forming a 

 forked tube. Another explanation is this : — At Hamp- 

 stead the ground above and about the colony is constantly 

 being disturbed in several ways, and frequently the aerial 

 portion is covered or partially so, perhaps only half of 

 it ; then the spider starts a new one and often carries 

 it up, making it longer than the buried part of the aerial. 



At Woking the plan of repairing some of the roads is 

 characteristic of the ''natives" in more ways than one. 

 In the roads where no footpath exists, with high banks 

 at each side, the plan is to allow the sand and stones to 

 roll down into the road until they become inconvenient, 

 then a wise man is sent from somewhere, and armed 

 with a shovel he proceeds to shovel the rubbish up ; but 

 not into a cart — that would be progressing at too great a 

 rate ; he just shovels it up and " slaps" it on to the bank 

 again, but how long it remains there in some of the 

 roads depends upon how soon after "a lover of spiders" 

 passes that way. This method of road-mending does 

 not improve or add to the comfort of the Atijpi which 

 may be in the banks, many of whose tubes are com- 

 pletely " slapped " over, in some cases too deep for the 

 imprisoned spiders to dig themselves out, though I have 

 often found that they have done so. I exhibit one which 

 I dug out of a "cake," under which I came upon the 

 original aerial portion ; this had been flattened, the 

 spider boring straight through until it reached the 

 surface again. I reset this, and after a few days' rest 

 the spider took to the original aerial portion, and never 

 once entered (so far as I can judge) the second one, 

 forming the hranvh. In another tube I found the aerial 

 portion rammed full of sand (example), until at last the 

 spider, finding it could not break an opening, started 

 another branch. 



On May 7th, 1884, I noticed a most extraordinary 

 tube in a turf bank (example). It had no less tlian_//re 

 branches protruding from the bank ; the owner (a huge 

 female) was at the bottom. This bank was at the side 

 of a road which faced south-west, and I think it most 



