PREFACE. 



In these opening chapters of Volume III. I shall consider the toilet 

 lial)its, manner of drinking, methods of burrowing, moulting and its con- 

 sequences, prognostication of the weather, some of the superstitions associ- 

 ated with spiders, spider silk and its commercial value, and some other 

 l)oints in the natural history of spiders not embraced in the preceding 

 volumes. 



I again make my thankful acknowledgments of the assistance cordially 

 given me by various friends and fellow laborers. Dr. George Marx, of 

 Washington, has been especially helpful by generously placing at my dis- 

 posal his entire collection of spider cocoons, and also by notes upon the 

 habits of some of the species whose life history I have described. To Prof. 

 Samuel H. Scudder I am indebted for various references and hints in pre- 

 paring the chapter on Fossil Spiders, and for the use of his own publi- 

 cations. Mrs. Mary Treat and Mrs. Rosa Smith Eigenmann have both 

 helped me with valuable material sent by the one from the Atlantic coast, 

 by the other from the Pacific. 



H. C;. McC. 

 The M.vxse, 



PiIIL.\DELPIII.\, July oil, ISiiO. 



