402 Mr. E. L. Laj'ard un the Progrecs of 



Aran. tit. 33. p. 90), either with the Attus scanthogramma or the 

 Attus tripunctatus of M. Walckenaer, who has referred it to both 

 (Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. i. pp. 415, 418), is attended with 

 difficulty in consequence of the brevity of the descriptions and 

 the want of specimens to enable me to compare it with those 

 species. It differs from both in some particulars, but, oi^ \^f 

 whole, appears to resemble the former more than the lattei;.,.,fi;) 



24. Salticus frontalis. '"""^ "^f^^ 



Saltieus rufifrons, Blackw. Research, in Zool. p. 420. \» 



'i n ' i maculatus, Wider, Museum Senckenbergianum, B. i. ,p» ,27,8^. 

 : ■ taf. 18. fig. 10. , /,„,, 



Attus frontalis, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. i. p. iWjt 

 Koch, Die Arachn. B. xiv. p. 44. tab. 474. fig. 1304, 1305. , a 



I have procured specimens of this spider, which is partial tii!> 

 well-wooded districts, in Denbighshire, Caernarvonshire, York- 

 shire, and Lancashire. In June the female constructs an oval 

 cell of white silk of a slight texture, usually attached to the in- 

 ferior surface of stones or withered leaves, in which she deposits 

 about 16 spherical eggs of a pale yellow colour, connected by 

 fine lines of silk. 



25. Salticus obscurus. .\ 



Salticus obscurus, Blackw. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 

 Second Series, vol. ri. p. 336. ^ 



An adult male of this minute Salticus is in the extensive col- 

 lection of British Araneidea belonging to Francis Walker, Esq., 

 of Arno's Grove, Southgate, Middlesex, in which locality it was 

 taken in May 1848. In the spring of 1850 an opportunity of 

 inspecting this fine collection was aSbrdedme by the Rev. Hamlet 

 Clark, and Mr. Walker very liberally pemiitted me to publish 

 descriptions of any species comprised in it which I suspected to 

 be unknown to arachnologists. 



XLI. — On the Progress of Natural History in Ceylon : hi a Letter 

 from Edgar L. Layard, Esq., to R. Templeton, Esq, c.^ 



Port Pedro, Jaffnapatam, North Ceyldli/'^ 

 October 18, 1850. ; ; H-aJcn 



You ask me in your last to give you some idea of the progress of 

 natural history here, and of the doings of the few who take an 

 interest therein. You also ask me for a list of such animals, birds, 

 &c. as have fallen under my notice. The first is easily done ; 

 the second is rather a labour — one of love, I grant, but still an un- 

 satisfactory one, from a cause which you and I have often deplored, 

 viz. the absence of books of reference. This I felt badly enough in 

 Colombo, with the limited stock in the U.S. library : what then do I 

 feel now, in this Ultima Thule, where my own scanty shelves contain 



