Gillies. — Description of Trap-door Sinders' Nests. 303 



an incli and forms a straight segment across one side of tlie oval (fig. 3). 

 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 trap- 

 door requu-es 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 punctures alluded to by 

 Moggridge and Grosse and referred to in my former paper. On the under 

 side of the lid in front there are four distinct sets of markings in the centre 

 of the free edge of the lip (fig. 4). There are 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. 5 is a sod 3^ 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. 6), 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 deejo, 

 corresponding exactly to the edge of the trap-door so as to receive it 

 accm-ately 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 

 siu'face, 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 



