466 
ARTICULATA. 
[Chap. XIII. 
room of the rest-house there, nearly covered with its 
legs an ordinary-sized breakfast plate. 1 
This hideous creature does not weave a broad web or 
spin a net like other spiders, but nevertheless it forms a 
comfortable mansion in the wall of a neglected building, 
the hollow of a tree, or under the eave of an overhang- 
ing stone. This it lines throughout with a tapestry of 
silk of a tubular form ; and of a texture so exquisitely 
fine and closely woven, that no moisture can penetrate 
it. The extremity of the tube is carried out to the 
entrance, where it expands into a little platform, stayed 
by braces to the nearest objects that afford a firm hold. 
In particular situations, where the entrance is exposed 
to the wind, the mygale, on the approach of the mon- 
soon, extends the strong tissue above it so as to serve 
as an awning to prevent the access of rain. 
The construction of this silken dwelling is exclusively 
designed for the domestic luxury of the spider ; it serves 
no purpose in trapping or securing prey, and no external 
disturbance of the web tempts the creature to sally out 
to surprise an intruder, as the epeira and its congeners 
would. 
By day it remains concealed in its den, whence it 
issues at night to feed on larvae and worms, devouring 
cockroaches and their pupae, and attacking the millepeds, 
gryllotalpae, and other fleshy insects. 
Mr. Edgar L. Layard has described 2 an encounter 
between a Mygale and a cockroach, which he witnessed 
in the madua of a temple at Alittane, between Anaraja- 
poora and Dambool. When about a yard apart, each 
1 See Plate opposite, 
2 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist 
May, 1853. 
