902 T'ransactions.—Zoology. 
of trap-door spiders will depend largely on the type of nest which they 
construct. It is therefore of much more importance than might at first 
appear, to have full and correct descriptions of nests, and this must be my 
apology for the somewhat minute detail which I shall now enter upon. In 
a question where the principles of classification are still undetermined, it is 
obviously impossible to say what is of value and what is not. It is, how- 
ever, greatly to be regretted that, as in the case of our Jamaica nest, the 
ingenious constructors of the nests, now about to be described, have been 
lost, or destroyed by insects, and henee it is now impossible to connect these 
nests with any particular species of trap-door spider. 
Nests from California. 
No. 1 is in soil of red volcanic clay or loam, and there is no herbage of 
any sort about it. The clod contains the whole nest complete and is only 
4} inches deep, so that the nest is only that depth, and, therefore, very 
much shorter in proportion than any of our New Zealand nests. The nest 
(fig. 1) is slightly tortuous, but contains no enlargement, and this is 
different also from most of our New Zealand ones. Itis lined throughout with 
a tough lining, and partakes more of the character of a pouch or sack than a 
tube, and in this approaches nearer to the Jamaica nest in our own museum. 
In shape it is oval, the short axis of the oval being across from the hinge 
area to the front or lip of the trap-door. But it is in the shape and forma- 
tion of the trap-door that this nest differs most essentially from our New 
Zealand nests. It is thicker next the hinge than at the front, the relative 
thicknesses being 4; of an inch and 4,4. It is thickened from the under side, 
and not on the top or outside as in other nests, and the hinge is a continua- 
tion of the lining of the nest (fig. 2) extended over the upper or outside 
lining of the trap-door which is parallel with the surface ground. This is 
important, as it goes to show that there has been no enlargement of the nest 
from time to time. In our species, and in those described by Moggridge, 
the thickening and tiling of the trap-door has evidently arisen from the 
spider widening its hole and adding on a new and enlarged trap-door on the 
under surface, the hinge being always attached to the new and enlarged 
trap-door. But in this case no such process has been followed—in fact, 
there is rather evidence of the opposite, for half-an-inch in front of the 
mouth of the nest, the remains of part of this or of another nest is seen 
sticking through the soil. It is possible, however, that the original top of 
the nest may have been removed and that this is an entirely new one. The 
lid is eoneave on both surfaces, and the edge is bevelled so as to fit close 
into a corresponding countersinking in the mouth of the nest like a cork or 
plug. The hinge is unusually long and straight, being nine-tenths of an inch 
= whilst the extreme with of the trap-door is only one and one-tenth of 
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