PREFACE 



riHHE modest dimensions of this book are perhaps 

 sufficient indication that it is not intended as 

 an aid to the collector. There are about five hundred 

 and fifty known species of spiders in the United 

 Kingdom alone, and at least an equal number of 

 pages would be needed to describe them. 



Our concern is with the habits and modes of life 

 of spiders especially of such as are most frequently 

 met with and most easily recognised, and the reader, 

 especially if he is fortunate enough to spend an 

 occasional holiday in southern Europe, will find little 

 in the following pages which he cannot verify or 

 disprove by his own observations. Indeed the hope 

 that some of his readers may be induced to investigate 

 on their own account has actuated the writer through- 

 out, and has led him to lay considerable stress upon 

 the methods of research and the ingeniously devised 

 experiments by means of which whatever knowledge 

 we possess has been obtained. 



CECIL WARBURTON 



CAMBRIDGE 



March, 1912 



