Giui1es.— On. the Habits of the Trap-door Spider. 259 
which is shown in Sketch No. 6, Plate VIII., and the inmate of which was 
Spider No.6. This nest was found in the Stable Gully, and a small cocoon 
of eggs was found in it near the top. (Cocoon No.1.) On digging it out 
and shaving away the side of the sod, I found running out from it near the 
bottom, a streak of earth, showing dark in the yellow clay. On examining 
it further, I found it was surface soil, and hence showed distinct and black. 
It was mixed with fibres of the brown animal matter already described, 
wings, legs, and hard cases of insects, beetles, ete. This showed me it was 
another branch, and so I carefully scraped the sod away, till I found this 
branch join the main excavation or nest. This side branch was evidently 
an old part of the nest which had been abandoned, and it was filled up and 
packed tight with surface soil (black mould), so that these spiders must 
have the faculty of taking soil down into their holes, as well as throwing it 
out. The débris of the refuse food alluded to, was also mixed with the 
black soil, in fact this was evidently its old midden, where all the refuse had 
been thrown, the whole being packed in tight, and sealed up by the usual 
lining of the nest, so that on looking from the main nest, I could not tell 
where the branch started from. There may have been a trap-door at the 
junction of this double branch, but I could not detect any. If there was 
one formerly, it had been amalgamated with the lining of the nest, the 
inside of which had been rounded off, smoothed and papered, just the same 
as others. There is no doubt in my mind, thata very long time must have 
been necessary for one spider to accumulate all this large mass of animal 
matter so tightly packed, and if the black mould were really surface soil, it 
almost suggests the idea, that this spider was acquainted with the antiseptic 
qualities of dry earth, for what else could this soil have been mixed up with 
the refuse for, if not to prevent the unwholesome odour from such a mass 
of decaying animal matter. If the object of the spider were merely to fill 
up the whole from any cause, it would have done so at once, and it would 
probably have used only clay from its main, or new, nest, but the packing 
being surface soil mixed with refuse animal matter, suggests the above idea, 
and that the spider preferred to get rid of it in this way, rather than empty 
it out,-and thereby draw attention to its nest. 
Double-branched Nest. 
The other exceptional form of nest I wish to refer to, is a double- 
branched one, but quite distinct from the one just described, inasmuch as, 
the double branch proceeded upwards from the upper part of the nest, and 
not downwards from the lower part, as in the last. A great part of Mr. 
Moggridge’s book is taken up with references to this description of nest, 
and to it I must refer you for information as to the wonderful way in which 
this double branch is utilised as a means of retreat from enemies, and also 
