428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888, 



Ihe Value of Abbofs ^fauuscript Drawings of American Spiders. — 

 Dr. Henry C. McCook reviewed some recent criticisms upon a 

 commuiiicatiou presented by him to this Academy. He spoke as 

 follows: 



In the last number of "Psyche, " ^ Mr. J. H. Emerton prints a 

 criticism upon my paper in the Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," based upon the recent discovery 

 of Mr. John Abbot's drawings of American spiders. This criticism 

 requires some comment. 



1. Mr. Emerton intimates doubt of what he calls my "off-hand 

 identifications." I spent between one and two hours in the Zoologi- 

 cal Library of the British Museum, aided by the courteous officials. 

 I confined my attention almost wholly to the one tribe with which 

 I am most familiar, the Orbweavers. Of those I published in my 

 paper twenty one (21) numbers, embracing seventeen species. Mr. 

 Emerton says: In 1875 I looked over these same drawings at the 

 British Museum "I, like Mr. McCook, made hasty identifications of 

 such few of them as I could." It might have been true thirteen 

 years ago that Mr. Emerton was unable to determine accurately that 

 number of common species within the time whicli I gave to them, 

 but I do not hesitate to say that he could not plead such inability 

 now after his study and publication of the New England Epeiridse. 

 At least, I should have small upiiiion of my own attainments if I 

 could not identify "off-hand," from the admirabje drawings of John 

 Abbot, such familiar species as most of those named in my list. I 

 think that any entomologist, familiar with j\Ir. Abbot's work, who 

 will substitute for spiders seventeen species of insects with which he 

 is most familiar, will quite agree with me that such determination is 

 not one of great difficulty. 



2. Mr. Emerton does scant justice to inv paper by leaving tlie 

 impression that its conclusions arc based wholly upon the ofi'-liand 

 identifications of an hour or two. On the contrary, that was a 

 small part of my work. I took carefully the numbers of Abbot's 

 drawings with his notes thereon, as w^ell as my own notes upon the 

 same made on the spot. After my return home, I diligently com- 

 pared these with Walckenaer's number, and satisfied myself tliat 

 the two exactly corresponded. I then went over WalckcMiaor's des- 

 criptions in the original (French),'' and con)])ared them with the 

 species themselves in my collection, verifying thus my first identifica- 

 tion. This occupied the leisure hours of several months; and the 

 indications and, in part, results of all this work may be seen in my 

 pa])er, where I give the evidence and references by which the student 

 can test my work if he will take the pains to do so. 



3 Mr. Emerton institutes a comparison between my published 

 list and a few numbers identified by him, from which he derives a 



1 Psyche, the organ of the "Cambridge Entomological Club," Vol, 5, No. 149- 

 150, Sept.— Oct. 1888. 



^ 1888, pp. l-6,"Necessity for Revising the Nomenclature of American Spiders." 

 s Histoire Nalurelle des Insectes Apteres, Vol. II. 



