1888.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 75 



It was known, of course, from Walckenaer's introduction to his 

 descriptions that he had purchased Abbot's' drawings of over five 

 hundred species of spiders and other arachnids; that he also had the 

 manuscript drawings made by Bosc of South Carolina spiders. But 

 Americans seem to have been in ignorance of what had become of 

 these drawings, and the fact that they were in the Zoological Lib- 

 rary appears to have escaped the observation of the little circle of 

 British students of araneads; at least the speaker could recall no 

 reference made to them in current literature. It was not until the 

 above incident that an American student was known to have a clew 

 to the whereabouts of the valuable volume which the British Mus- 

 eum is so fortunate as to possess.^ How the book happened to come 

 into its present place, or in what manner it was procured from Baron 

 Walckenaer or his executors. Dr. McCook was not able to say. 



On the day when the discovery was made, he had engagements 

 which prevented him giving more than an hour or two to the study 

 of the figures, and as he was about to leave London, no further oppor- 

 tunity presented for making extended notes. However, he was able 

 at once to recognize a number of species which have long and fa- 

 miliarly been known under the names published by Hentz. He took 

 notes of a number of these species, principally among the orbweav- 

 ers, a group with which he was at })resent particularly engaged. 

 He also took the numbers under which the figures are listed by 

 Abbot. 



After returning to America Dr. McCook went over Walckenaer's 

 descriptions, comparing them witli his own notes, and found that 

 there is no doubt at all as to the identity of these drawings with the 

 original ones from which Walckenaer described his published spe- 

 cies. The number of Abbot's figures as they appear in the manu- 

 scripts correspond with the numbers cited by Walckenaer in his 

 references to the same. Moreover, Walckenaer's descriptions, view- 

 ed in the light of the speaker's recollection of the drawings, together 

 with his own notes and identification on the spot, remove all doubt 

 as to the identity of at least a considerable number of the species. 



The importance of this discovery is seen in view of the following 

 facts: Walckenaer published his descriptions of Georgia species in 

 1837; Professor Hentz, the father of American Araneology, made 

 his publications in the Proceedings and Journal of the Boston So- 

 ciety of Natural History beginning with the year 1841, and con- 

 tinued until 1850. The latter have been gathered together and 



^ Walckenaer erroneously refers to the author as "Thomas" Abbot; his name is 

 "John." 



2 The full title of the book is "Drawings of the Insects of Georgia in America 

 by John Abbot of Savannah. Vol. XIV, 1792." Zoological Library of the 

 British Museum of Natural History, London. 



