GirurEs,— Description of Trap-door Spiders’ Nests. 308 
an inch and forms a straight segment across one side of the oval (fig. 8). 
The hinge has no spring in it, but the material may have lost its elasticity, 
though from the shape of it I don't think it ever had any spring. The irap- 
door requires some force to open it from the closeness with which it fits 
into the mouth of the nest, but once it is opened it easily remains open. 
This trap-door bears very plainly the markings or punetures alluded to by 
Moggridge and Gosse and referred to in my former paper. On the under 
side of the lid in front there are four distinet sets of markings in the centre 
of the free edge of the lip (fig. 4). "Thereare two sets of four holes or slits, 
each in the centre separated by a wider space of about a line, and then 
other two sets, one on each side separated from the others by a wider Space 
of about a line, and forming a row of more minute holes for about a quarter 
of an inch on each side of about a dozen placed irregularly. Whatever 
these markings are, and the general symmetry of them is peculiar, they are 
certainly not air-holes as suggested by Gosse, for the holes do not 
penetrate through the lid. The lining of the trap-door is very tough, and 
the outside is covered only with red loam corresponding with the soil 
surrounding. 
No. 2 is a sod 8} inches deep with only the upper part of a nest and the 
trap-door complete. What there is of the nest is nearly straight or has only 
a slight bend. The lid is flat on the upper side (fig. 5), and is thicker at 
the hinge than at the free edge, the proportion being four-tenths of an inch 
and two-tenths. The thickening, as in the last case, is entirely on the 
under side, and the hinge is attached to the upper or outer lining of the 
trap-door. The free edge is markedly bevelled, being quite sharp at the edge, 
then concave, and then convex all round (fig. 6.) The mouth of the nest 
is counter-sunk for two-tenths of an inch in width and four-tenths deep, 
corresponding exactly to the edge of the trap-door so as to receive it 
accurately like a valve. The outer side is coated with plants and when 
shut falls into the counter-sinking about two-tenths of an inch below the 
surface, but this may be caused by the drying up and shrinking of the 
material. The under side is covered not so much with close woven cloth 
as with innumerable coarse threads of spider web, easily distinguishable by 
the naked eye, and there are no markings whatever on it. As in the last 
case the hinge is unusually long, and forms a straight segment across the 
round of the trap-door; but the great peculiarity of this nest, and one 
which distinguishes it from any I have ever seen, or that has ever been 
described, is that it is not hinged all the way across at the hinge area, but 
has two hinges (fig. 7), one at each extremity of the hinge area, separated 
by an unattached part between them. These hinges are very tough, and 
are respectively two-tenths and three-tenths of an inch wide. The back 
