Gru.t1es.—On the Habits of the Trap-door Spider. 247 
I saw held down by the spiders; but always with the same result; but I 
should be sorry to hazard the opinion that what has been observed by so 
many eminent naturalists never does occur in Otago. My opportunities of 
observation on this point have been too limited to generalise, for though I 
have seen hundreds of nests; it is only sometimes the spider can be caught 
in the act of holding down the trap-door. I have repeatedly tapped the ~ 
lids of nests with my knife, and have observed the spider come up and hold 
down the lid (and I may mention here that one of the spiders first sent home 
to the Rey. P. Cambridge was one of these); but I have also tried this device 
scores of times without the inmate of the nest taking the slightest notice. 
Much difference of experience, and of opinion, has been recorded about 
these holes in the lids; but Iam not in a position to decide the point. I 
must say, however, that the suggestion of Gosse, that they are air-holes, is 
untenable, so far as the Oamaru species is concerned, for, if air-holes are 
required, they would be found in every lid, or at least in every tight fitting 
one; but this is not the case, as in the large majority of trap-doors that I 
have found, no markings or holes whatever are discernable, and on no occa- 
sion, even when the lid had been seen to be held down, was there anything 
in the least like what he describes in the following passage :—‘ A row of 
minute holes such as might be made by a very fine needle, pierced around 
the free edge of the lid, and a double row of similar ones just within the 
margin of the tube. There are about fifteen or sixteen punctures in each 
series, and they penetrate through the whole substance, the light being 
clearly seen through each hole. I do not think, as I have somewhere seen 
suggested, that they are intended to afford a hold for the spider’s claws 
when she would keep her door shut against the efforts of an enemy, for 
what would be the use of having them in the tube close to the lid, so close 
that not an eighth of an inch intervenes between the surface of the lid and 
that of the tube when the former is tightly closed.”’ I would suggest whether 
they may not be air-holes, for so tight is the fitting of the lid, and so com- 
pact the texture of the material, that I should suppose the material would 
be impermeable to air but for this contrivance. It is evident that Mr. 
Gosse, in this passage, refers to holes in the tube that are not observable in 
the Oamaru nests, and in this respect my experience coincides with that of 
Mr. Mogeridge, as stated at page 96 of his book. 
Nests, how long to construct. 
On the question of how long time these spiders take to make their nests, 
I can throw very little light. The first nests I found nearly three years 
ago, were situated in the middle of a three hundred-acre paddock which had 
been laid down in English grass less than two years before, and had been 
in cultivation for several years previous. When I discovered them there 
