Weavers and Spinners. 



of the wonders of Nature ; and their labours, carried on 

 under such adverse conditions, have often been rewarded 

 by discoveries which have proved of incalculable service 

 to the advancement of our knowledge of those subjects 

 to which they have devoted their attention. One of 

 the noblest examples is, I think, to be found in the 

 life of the great Charles Darwin, whose greatest and 

 most fruitful labours may be said to have been carried 

 out under conditions of health almost intolerable con- 

 ditions that would have quickly converted most people 

 into peevish, self-absorbed, useless members of society ; 

 yet through all the long years of bodily suffering he 

 devoted every possible moment to those epoch-making 

 scientific investigations that made his name famous 

 throughout the world. 



The nest of the Trap-door Spider, even in its simplest 

 form, is a wonderful piece of workmanship, requiring a 

 considerable amount of patience, skill, and ingenuity in 

 its construction. According to Mr. Moggridge, four 

 types of trap-door nest, properly so called, may be 

 distinguished. All the four types of nest consist of a 

 tube excavated in the earth to a greater or less depth, 

 in every case lined with silk, this lining being continuous 

 with the lining of the door or doors of which it forms 

 the hinge. Two of the types of nest are almost exactly 

 alike, except in the construction of the trap-door, which 

 in one consists of a thin, circular or oval sheet of silk, 

 which flaps down loosely over the tube entrance 

 called the wafer door ; while in the other the door is 

 much thicker, made of layers of earth and silk, and so 

 contrived that it tightly closes the mouth of the tube, 

 which is bevelled to receive it much as a cork closes 



