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STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
time would be likely to guess at its real character. The micro- 
scope, however, reveals its true character at once. If the in- 
terior of the tube be submitted to a moderately low power, say 
from thirty to forty diameters, a curious sight is presented to 
the observer. The surface looks like very rough felt, covered 
with little prominences, and composed of threads twisted to- 
gether without the least apparent order. The threads are very 
coarse, in comparison to ordinary spider-web, and seem to be 
stiff, as if covered with size or gum. 
The entrance of the tube is guarded by the ‘ trap-door/ from 
which the spider takes its name. This is a flap of the same 
substance as the tube, circular in shape, so as to fit the orifice 
with perfect accuracy, and attached to the tube by a tolerably 
wide hinge, so that when it closes it does not fall to either side, 
but comes true and fair upon the opening which it defends. 
The inner surface of the trap-door is white and felt-like, and 
exactly resembles the interior of the tube, but its outer surface 
is covered with earth, taken from the soil in which the hole is 
dug. As the trap-door is flush with the surface of the ground, 
it is evident that, when it is closed, all traces of the burrow and 
its inhabitant are lost. 
The spider is urged by a curious instinct to make its tunnel 
in some sloping spot, and to keep the hinge uppermost, so that 
when the inhabitant leaves its home, or retreats to the extremity 
of its burrow, the door closes of its own accord, and effectually 
conceals it. New-comers into the country which the Trap-door 
Spider inhabits are often surprised by seeing the ground open, 
a little lid lifted up, and a rather formidable spider peer about, 
as if to reconnoitre the position before leaving its fortress. At 
the least movement on the part of the spectator, back pops the 
spider, like the cuckoo on a clock, clapping its little door after 
it quite as smartly as the wooden bird, and in most cases 
succeeds in evading the search of the astonished observer, the 
soil being apparently unbroken, without a trace of the curious 
little door that had been so quickly shut. 
The spider itself is an odd-looking creature, with rather 
short, but very powerful legs, and a most formidable pair of 
