Certain nests which were furnished with two doors of the cork type were observed by Mr. S. S. Saunders in the Ionian Islands. The door at the surface of these nests was normal in position and structure, but the lower one was placed at the very bottom of the nest, and inverted, so that, though apparently intended to open downwards, it was permanently closed by the surrounding earth. The presence of a carefully constructed door in a situation which forbade the possibility of its ever being opened seemed, indeed, something difficult to account for. However, it occurred to Mr. Saunders that, as these nests were found in the cultivated ground round the roots of olive trees, they may occasionally have got turned topsy-turvy when the soil was broken up. The spider then, finding her door buried below in the ground and the bottom of the tube at the surface, would have either to seek new quarters or to adapt the nest to its altered position, and make an opening and door at the exposed end. In order to try whether one of these spiders would do this, Mr. Saunders placed a nest, with its occupant inside, upside down in a flower-pot. After the lapse of ten days a new door was made, exactly as he had conjectured it would be, and the nest presented two doors like those which he had found at first. The most remarkable fact connected with these animals, if we regard their peculiar instinct from the standpoint of the descent theory, is the wide range of their geographical distribution. In all quarters of the globe species of trap-door spiders are found occurring in more or less localised areas; and as it is improbable that so peculiar an instinct should have arisen independently in more than one line of descent, we can only conclude that the wide dispersion of the species presenting it has been subsequent to the origin and perfecting of the instinct. This conclusion of course necessitates the supposition that the instinct must be one of enormous antiquity; and in this connection it is worthy of remark that we seem to have independent evidence to show that such is the case. It is a principle of evolution that the earlier any structure or instinct appears in the development of the race, the sooner will it appear in the development of the individual; and read by the light of this principle we should conclude, quite apart from all considerations as to the wide geographical distribution of trap-door spiders, that their instincts--as, indeed, is the case with the characteristic instincts of many other species of spiders--must be of immense age. Thus, again to quote Moggridge,-- It seems to be the rule with spiders generally that the offspring should leave the nest and construct dwellings for themselves when very young.