AN AWKWARD DOORWAY 



for some reason decided to have a new dwelling and, not 

 having a doorway, had been obliged to make a hole in the 

 wall in order to walk out of the old one ; at all events the 

 hole was there. Atypus is said to feed on insects that 

 alight on the outside of the tube, approaching cautiously, 

 and invisible all the while, along the inside until directly 

 underneath the intended victim, which is then seized through 



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the wall : a hole is torn in the web, the prey is dragged in- 

 side, and the rent repaired by the spider, who retires under- 

 ground to devour her captive at leisure. It has also been 

 stated that this spider eats earth-worms, which are intro- 

 duced into the den through the inner portion of the tube ; 

 but any one who has observed the swiftness with which a 

 worm retreats into its burrow when alarmed, or the very 

 effective resistance it offers to forcible removal, will have 

 difficulty in believing that a weak-limbed spider could ever 

 succeed in getting the better of one in a tug-of-war. 



Our British Territelarian, then, excavates a dwelling and 

 covers the walls with silken tapestry, which is continued 

 through the doorway into the open air in the form of a 

 long, narrow bag. Every time the inhabitant wishes to 

 walk abroad, or has occasion to take in supplies, she is obliged 

 to cut a hole in the bag and repair it again afterwards 

 an arrangement which does not strike one as being very con- 

 venient, though it is certainly effective from one point of 

 view, for it makes it quite impossible for undesirable visitors, 

 such as wasps and ichneumon-flies, to gain admission to the 

 habitation. The true trap-door spiders attain the same end 

 in a far more ingenious manner, as we shall see. They 

 inhabit warm countries all round the globe, and are espe- 

 cially plentiful in Jamaica. In Europe they are found on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, where they were studied by their 

 famous biographer, Mr. Moggridge, who devoted the leisure 



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