SPIDERS. 137 



some sloping spot, and to keep the hinge uppermost, so that when 

 the inhabitant leaves its home, or retreats to the extremity of its 

 burrow, the door closes of its own accord, and effectually conceals 

 it. New-comers into the country which the Trap-door Spider in- 

 habits are often surprised by seeing the ground open, a little lid 

 lifted up, and a rather formidable spider peer about, as if to recon- 

 noitre the position before leaving its fortress. At the least move- 

 ment on the part of the spectator, back pops the spider, like the 

 cuckoo on a clock, clapping its little door after it quite as smartly 

 as the wooden bird, and in most cases succeeds in evading the 

 search of the astonished observer, the soil being apparently un- 

 broken, without a trace of the curious little door that had been so 

 quickly shut. 



In the British Museum there is one of these tubes, which tells 

 a curious story, and shows that the spider which made it had 

 chosen cultivated ground for its residence. About three inches 

 from the mouth of the tube there is a tough, leathery flap, the ob- 

 ject of which is not very apparent. A closer examination shows 

 that this flap was a disused trap-door, and that the spider had 

 lengthened its cell and made a second door at the new entrance. 

 This fact proved that the ground had increased in thickness since 

 the spider completed its habitation, and that the addition to the 

 surface was very rapid, for the spider is not remarkable for lon- 

 gevity, and yet, in its short life, three inches of soil had covered 

 the entrance to its silken cell. Evidently the creature had bur- 

 rowed in cultivated soil, most probably in a garden, and in pro- 

 cess of tilling the ground, a spadeful or two of earth had been 

 thrown over the trap-door. Being thus imprisoned, the spider 

 had no other resource but to push its way through, the earth, 

 lengthen its tube, and make another door level with the new sur- 

 face. 



The spider itself is an odd-looking creature, with rather short, 

 but very powerful legs, and a most formidable pair of fangs. 

 These fangs are notable for the fact that their bases are furnished 

 with a series of sharply-pointed barbs. This peculiarity has given 

 to the spider the generic name of Cteniza, this title being derived 

 from a Greek word signifying a comb. The abdomen is very 

 large, round, and firm, and from its tip projects the spinnerets, by 

 means of which the silken tunnel is made. Altogether, it has so 

 crustacean an aspect, that, in common with many other species, it 

 is called by the French the Crab Spider. The length of the spec- 



