spotted as I thought — caught my eye, and I stooped to pick it up ; as I did so. the 

 spots — in the shape of several black spiders, which were sunning themselves on the 

 flat surface — instantly slipped round the edge of the stone and disappeared amongst 

 the loose shingle with which the shore is there covered. Mr. Meade has kindly 

 determined the species to be Lycosa saccata. 



I soon saw that spiders of the same species were everywhere around, sitting 

 motionless on the stones, as far as the eye could reach, giving them a speckled 

 appearance, as if there had been a shower of ink. 



Now, I don't like spiders ; I have an inherited antipathy to the race, and always 

 remember against them the poet's description : 



" Where gloomily retired, 



The villain spider lives, cunning and fierce, 

 Mixture abhorred ! " Thomson's Seasons. 



But I stood still to watch this — to me — novel sight, although feeling slightly uncom- 

 fortable at finding myself in so much bad company. They seemed (for spiders) in 

 an amiable frame of mind, and, so long as their legs did not touch, to be indifferent 

 to each other's presence ; but the slightest contact was resented, and, when it occurred, 

 one or other, without combat, instantly quitted the field and disappeared round the 

 edge of the stone. I believe all these well-behaved spiders to have been males, 

 exhibiting themselves with a view to matrimony ; but how they settled questions of 

 precedence, or the right to occupy particular stones, I could not ascertain. 



Occasionally, however, a different scene presented itself — an apparently accidental 

 collision of the legs of two spiders occurred, when the pair instantly grappled and 

 rolled together over the edge of the stone in a black ball. The sexes of Lyvosa 

 saccata do not differ much in size or appearance, and I could not distinguish them 

 at sight, but I have little doubt that these pairs were composed of male and female 

 individuals. I tried to intercept the fall of several couples, but, owing to the rapidity 

 of the action, and the awkwardness of the situation amongst loose shingle, I failed 

 to do so, or to find them afterwards. What I saw may only have been innocent 

 coyness on the part of the lady-spider, but it seemed hard on the gentleman to be 

 seized by his bride on the wedding-day and compelled to jump over a precipice, even 

 in her arms. 



I am unable to say whether the female Lycosa is in the habit of reversing the 

 parts in the story of the Arabian Nights' Entertainment, and with not merely doing 

 wiiat the Sultan only threatened, but with eating him afterwards; but I noticed a 

 great many empty spider skins amongst the shingle, and thought the circumstance 

 suspicious, and the lady comes into court with a damaged character. 



See De Geer's observation quoted by Kirby and Spence, vol. i, 1818, p. 280, 

 and Darwin's "Descent of Man," vol. i, p. 339, that he "saw a male spider in the 

 " midst of his preparatory caresses seized by the object of his attentions, enveloped 

 " by her in a web, and then devoured, a sight which, as he adds, filled him with 

 " horror and indignation." 



The number of spiders was so prodigious that I tried to make a rough estimate 

 of them : the shingle bank, over the whole of which they were scattered, is about 

 250 yards in length by twelve yards in width — and I am sure I do not over estimate 

 the number of spiders at ten to the square foot — which would give 270,000 in all ! 

 and Onchan is only one amongst hundreds of similar bays round the Isle of 

 Man. 



