THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 227 



but, having been too bountiful to it at first, to the extent of 

 three or four in one day, it occasioned a surfeit I suppose, 

 and thereafter would receive no more. The other was, from 

 some cause, unsuccessfid in securing them when they were 

 placed in its web ; and although I tried on two or three oc- 

 casions, each time they broke away, nearly demolishing the 

 web. Most of the spiders seemed to be aware that to secure 

 earwigs required a peculiar " knack ;" hence they treated them 

 quite in a different manner to the rest of their prey. They 

 generally endeavoured to " double them up," bringing head 

 and tail together, and then passing over them successive 

 coils of silk, rarely striking them with their fangs at first, but 

 leaving them to struggle until exhausted. 1 noticed that the 

 earwigs did not attempt to strike their enemies with their 

 forceps ; but one would occasionally seize in his jaws a leg 

 of the spider who was rolling him round to enwrap him in 

 his thread. — John R. S. Clifford ; 21, Robert Terrace, Cliel- 

 sea, April 24, 1865. 



151. Do Larva: obtain Nourifihment from the Egg, in the 

 same way as Birds when hatched ? — 1 had some larvae 

 hatched on the 14th instant ; and although I have been un- 

 able to obtain any food for the unfortunates, they are still 

 alive, and seem in no way the worse for their abstinence. I 

 may mention that they greedily " lap " up water which I 

 place in their cage. — William Gibson; 9, Lupus Street, 

 London, April 19. 



152. French Honey. — A gi'e at portion of the immense 

 quantity of honey consumed in France is supplied from the 

 island of Corsica and from Brittany. Corsica produced so 

 much wax in ancient times that the Romans imposed on it 

 an annual tribute of 100,000 fbs, weight. Subsequently the 

 inhabitants revolted, and they were punished by the tribute 

 being raised 4o 200,000 lbs. weight annually, which they 

 were able to supply. Wax is to honey in Corsica as one to 

 fifteen, so that the inhabitants must have gathered 3,000,000 

 kilogrammes of honey. When Corsica became a dependency 

 of the Papal Court it paid its taxes in wax, and the quantity 

 was sufficient to supply the consumption not only of the 

 churches in the city of Rome, but those in the Papal States. 

 Brittany likewise supplies a great quantity of honey, but of 

 inferior quality to that of Corsica. The annual value of the 



