sion which a snake's movements would leave behind him, for what I had noticed were in reality the traces of a march of Palmer-worms, of which we now and then saw a prodigious number.
On one especial occasion we descried laid across the road at a little distance, what we supposed to be a string of twisted opossum fur, such as is made by the natives; but on nearer approach we found it to be a party of these same Palmers on a pilgrimage, the head of one touching the tail of another, and all of them dressed as for penance in the hair-cloth which has been given them by nature.
In a clayey bank in our field a good many of the curious trap-door spiders had taken up their abode, These singular insects form a circular tube in the ground, which is lined with smooth hangings of silk, and closed at the top by a tightly-fitting door, furnished with a spring hinge which is also lined on the inside with silk. The upper surface of this trap-door is made of pellets of earth so fashioned and arranged as exactly to match the surface of the ground into which the shaft is sunk, even to the extent of being covered with shreds of moss should the bank be a mossy one.
One scarcely knows which to admire most, the skilful rounding of the shaft, the perfectly adjusted hinge to the door, or the talent for concealment which renders this spider's dwelling so difficult to discover. Although constructed on the surface of the bare ground the trap-door is so well masked that, if Binnahan had not shown us the exact spot where it might be found, we should probably have never been aware that we had these interesting
