THE SPIDERS. 327 



rally in damp shady places or shelving banks, where rubbish, 

 rolled down earth, or rank vegetation covers them as much 

 as possible. Sloping banks are also^generally chosen, so 

 that the doors may fall too by their' own weight without 

 difficulty, while the nests are very seldom found in flat 

 ground. The door^ as a rule, shuts very firmly and securely, 

 although Moggridge, who investigated a large number of 

 nests, here also found great individual differences between 

 members of the same species. Cleverness is, therefore, a 

 talent which is as differently divided among spiders as among 

 men. 



When Moggridge moved such a door with the point of 

 a penknife, it was at once slowly drawn downwards, like 

 the shutting down of the shell of a limpet. He then 

 tried to open the door, in spite of the vigorous counter- 

 efforts of the inhabitant, and saw how the spider held on 

 with all its might, lying on its back and having hooked its 

 feet fast into the silken covering of the lower part of the 

 door. Moggridge did not force any wider opening, but cut 

 out of the ground the upper part of the nest with the spider. 

 It was then seen that the little holes on the inner part of 

 the door, which the spider used for a hold for his feet, were 

 only found on the part of the door away from the hinge, 

 thus exactly where they were wanted with the object of 

 holding fast. These holes, further, were not present in any 

 other nests. 



A nest found accidentally in digging up a plant which 

 had been brought to Mr. Moggridge was quite covered on 

 the surface with moss, and the moss grew on the surface of 

 the door itself, and looked exactly like that growing all 

 round. The deception was so complete that Mr. Moggridge 

 was unable to distinguish the closed door, even when he 

 held the nest in his hand. This is the more remarkable, 

 as from all appearances it must be thought that the spider 

 itself planted the moss on the surface of its door ! 



According to the descriptions given by Moggridge of the 

 newly-discovered and more complicated nests, there is found 

 in these on the surface of the ground a thin oblate-shaped! 

 door, resembling the West Indian form, and, from two to 

 four inches deeper, a second and more strongly or solidly- 

 built door, which last also is very differently shaped, accord- 

 ingly as it belongs to a nest without or with ramifications. 



Y2 



