oo(J ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



hind, and fastened upon the irregularities of the side of the ditch. 

 The spicier then commenced tugging to get his prize up the bank. 

 My friend stayed to watch them, while I went to the nearest house 

 for a wide-mouthed bottle. During the six or eight minutes that I 

 was away, the spider had drawn the fish entirely out of the water, 

 when they had both fallen in again, the bank being nearly perpen- 

 dicular. There had been a great struggle ; and now, on my return, 

 the fish was already hoisted head first more than half his length out 

 on the land. The fish was very much exhausted, hardly making any 

 movement, and the spider had evidently gained the victory, and 

 was slowly and steadily tugging him up. He had not once quitted 

 his hold during the quarter to half an hour that we had watched 

 them. He held, with his head toward the fish's tail, and pulled him 

 up at an angle of forty-five degrees by stepping backwards. How 

 long they had been there, or how far they had come, we cannot tell. 

 We saw no web anywhere about. 



" The time would not permit a longer stay, so we reluctantly bottled 

 the pair. I thought I had missed dipping up the spider, and looked 

 along the bank, but on turning to the' bottle he was there. The fish 

 was swimming weakly at the bottom of the water that I had dipped 

 in, and the spider standing sentinel over him on the surface, turning 

 when he turned, and watching every motion. We stopped the mouth 

 of the bottle so that the spider could not escape, and went above on 

 the hill. Returning in about three hours, we found, to our disappoint- 

 ment, the spider dead at the bottom, but the fish was alive. He lived 

 for twenty-four hours. The spider was three-fourths of an inch long, 

 and weighed fourteen grains ; the fish was three and one-fourth inches 

 long, and weighed sixty-six grains." 



MUSKY SECRETIONS OF ANIMALS. BY PROF. GIRARD. 



The substances known under the general name of musk, on account 

 of their special odor, are met with in various classes of animals having 

 an aerial respiration. Their production depends specially on the 

 function of generation, and the glands furnishing them are generally 

 placed near the genital apparatus. In the larger number of cases, 

 the males present this musky secretion in a large amount ; it re- 

 mains rudimentary with the females, which in the animal kingdom 

 may be considered as offering an arrest of organic development as 

 compared with males, although rigorously following the same type. 

 The Asiatic Roussettes (Pteropus) have their urine strongly musky, 

 and the odor impregnates their flesh, so that the Malays hunt after 

 them as delicacies, as Peron and other travellers testify. Two allied 

 species of carnivora, civets and zibeths, furnish most of the musk used 

 in pharmacy and perfumery. The males, especially at the period of 

 rutting, furnish more musk than the females, in the pouches near the 

 genital organs. This position indeed is invariably occupied by the 

 organs secreting musk in the mammalia. The genet of the next 

 genus presents the same secretion, rudimentary in the female and 

 much more abundant than is generally supposed in the male at the 

 tune of rutting. The dung of the wild polecat is musky, while its 

 odor is infectious when the animal is a captive. Among the insect! v- 



