Literary Notices. ' Ixiii 



seductive influence emanating from the medical department may well 

 give the parent pause in selecting a home for four formative years in 

 a son's life. 



Notes ott Spider Habits. 



Mr. H. H. 'J. Bell, in a letter to Nature, April 13, 1893, gives 

 an interesting description of a case of mimicry in spiders, observed 

 on the West coast of Africa, a part of which we quote : 



" It was about three in the afternoon and I was being leisurely 

 carried along by my bearers, when I noticed in the bushes that bor- 

 dered the path something which appeared to me to be a sort of white 

 flower. 



I stopped and examined it. Instead of being a flower, I found 

 it was the web of a spider, and it was hanging between the branches 

 of a shrub about three feet from the ground. 



The outer lines of the web were of considerable strength and 

 were stretched between points from eight to to ten inches apart. 

 From these lines, supported by a few radii, hung a beautiful rosette- 

 shaped centre, much resembling a delicate pattern in white silk lace. 

 The central space was open and measured about a quarter of an inch 

 in diameter. The notched space was adorned by three circular zig- 

 zag cords of thick, white flossy silk. I did not notice any of Mac- 

 Cook's so-called " ribbon braces." The spiral space was very open 

 and the threads composing it were so slight as to be almost invisible. 

 So thin were they that the ribboned centre appeared to be hanging in 

 the air without any support whatever. The appearance of this web 

 was almost exactly similar to that of the web of Uloborus, shown in 

 Fig. 57, p. 58, of MacCook's " American Spiders." I did not no- 

 tice any " fenders " or protective wings on the outer side of the web ; 

 there were, however, a few strengthening strands on the side turned 

 towards the bush. 



The web, however, especially bore a strong resemblance to a 

 flower, the more so as in the exact centre of its outward side was sta- 

 tioned a spider with a light blue body. This light blue color gave 

 one the impression that it was the centre of the flower, while the yel- 

 low legs spotted with brown were symmetrically disposed in the shape 

 of an X across the ribboned hub, thus dividing it into the semblance 

 of petals. The illusion was remarkable. 



The spider remained motionless uatil I touched the web. She 

 then fell into the net which I was holding under the snare. 



As soon as she touched the net (a white gauze one) she changed 



