LITERATURE 133 



LITERATURE 



MOST of the large publications on the Arachnid fauna of different 

 countries give some preliminary account of the habits of spiders, 

 but the only considerable work entirely devoted to that subject is 

 Me Cook's American Spiders and their Spinning-work (Phila- 

 delphia, 1893). A small but interesting book on The Structure 

 and Habits of Spiders was published ten years previously by 

 Emerton (Boston, 1883). But the reader who wishes to pursue 

 further the study of some point to which his attention has been 

 called in the foregoing pages may desire to be referred, for fuller 

 details, to the original papers. 



Many writers have described the spinning of the circular snare, 

 and indeed it is quite easy for any one to watch the operation for 

 himself; but Me Cook goes into the matter in great detail and 

 figures many interesting variants of its normal form. J. H. Fabre's 

 delightful Souvenirs entomologiques (Delagrave, Paris) have 

 been issued at intervals for many years past, and mostly deal 

 with insects. In Series 9, however, he has an entertaining 

 chapter on "Les Epeires." That the "viscid globules" arranged 

 themselves mechanically was first demonstrated by C. V. Boys 

 (Nature, xl, 1889,. p. 250). The same writer experimented on the 

 sense of hearing in spiders (Nature, xxiii, 1880, p. 149). The 

 interesting paper by G. and E. Peckham on the mental powers of 

 spiders is to be found in the Journal of Morphology ( Boston U .8. A.) 

 i, 1887, p. 403. 



The aeronautic habit has engaged the attention of many 

 arachnologists. Blackwall dealt with it in various papers in the 

 Transactions of the Linnaean Society between 1833 and 1841, 

 but the most complete account is to be found in Me Cook's original 

 papers which are summarised in his book already cited. 



With regard to the spinning operations of Agelena the reader 



