106 NATURE NOTES. 
any use for a lively brood of spiders, I suffocated—or to 
speak more correctly—baked them, and was then able to 
count the little corpses. I am not sure that some did not 
escape from the box, or die in the crannies of it, but those 
I could collect numbered ninety-two. As the cocoon was at 
the first not quite one-quarter of an inch in diameter, and 
the body of the parent somewhat smaller, this seems a fairly 
numerous progeny for one individual. 
The second Yheridion I found in the leaf of a hanging 
plant (Zradescantia). The pale greenish colour of the spider 
is protective, and the nest was noticed before the weaver 
was observed. The cocoon was already fixed to the leaf 
when found, but the spider worked for some days com- 
pleting the surroundings. The cocoon lay almost in the 
centre of the leaf, which was drawn together slightly by a 
snare which extended to adjacent foliage. The leaf was 
filled with an irregular mass of web, and through this, 
leading to the cocoon, a neat tunnel was woven. About 
this opening the spider was always on guard after the com- 
pletion of the work. Often the whole day would pass 
without her apparently making the slightest movement. 
But at some unobserved period she evidently displayed 
some activity, for quite a considerable number of midges 
and a few aphides were collected. As the spider did not 
appear to devour these herself, they may have been food 
provided for the young spiders. 
This was in the autumn—October; the usual time for 
hatching is about July, and though the nest was made 
under quite natural conditions, it was apparently too late, 
and perhaps too chilly, for the young brood. Only a few 
spiders came out of the nest, crept feebly to the surrounding 
snares, and died there in the course of a day or so. 
The mother behaved precisely as in the previous case. 
She drew away to the extremity of the snare, and died just 
before the little spiders came out. 
BEATRICE 8. WILLANS. 
