126 Transactions. — Zoology. 



never met with. It has heen urged against the theory of 

 sexual selection that it postulates the existence of an eesthetic 

 sense in the lower animals ; but, when one sees an animal so 

 lowly organized as the spider able to weave for its protection 

 a well-shaped tube, to make and attach to it by a strong 

 flexible hinge a perfectly-fitting lid, and then to cover the 

 entire exterior surface of both tube and lid with materials so 

 selected and adjusted as to produce an exact imitation of the 

 varying surface of the objects on wliich it builds, one does not 

 feef disposed to attach much weight to the objection. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XX. 



a. Natuml length of spider. 



b. Micjas sandagerl. 



c. Under-side of four joints of a leg of the first pair. 



d. Left palpus. 



£. Piece of bark with nest, the latter purposely made less inconspicuous 

 than in nature. 



Akt. Xyill.— Notice of the Occurrence of the Basking SJiark 

 (Selaehe maxima, L.) in New Zealand. 



By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., Curator of the Auckland 

 Museum. 



Read before the Auckland Institute, 6t1i October, 1S90.] 



In November, 1889, an unusually large shark, measuring over 

 34ft. in length, was exhibited for a few days at Devonport. It 

 had been stranded near the mouth of the Wade Eiver, where 

 it and another had been noticed for some days previous. Some 

 enterprising individuals secured it, and towed it to Devonport, 

 partly with the hope of earning a few pounds by exhibiting it 

 to the Auckland public, and partly to extract the oil from the 

 liver, that organ containing in sharks, as is well known, a large 

 supply of valuable oil. Being by far the largest ever exhibited 

 in Auckland, it attracted considerable attention. I was unable 

 to visit it for a day or two, and, as reports were circulated that 

 it had large triangular teeth, I felt confident that it was an un- 

 usually large specimen of the White Shark (Garcharodon ivnde- 

 letii), which visits our coasts every summer. When an inspection 

 of the specimen was made, however, a glance showed that it was 

 not that species. The body was of enormous girth, giving it a 

 very different appearance from the i-ather slenderly-built white 



