PREFACE. 



Mr. E. W. Oates, who has made many valuable contributions to the 

 Zoological Department in the British Museum, presented to the 

 Trustees the large collection of Spiders which he had formed during 

 his residence in Burma. He suggested at the same time that it 

 should be offered for examination to Professor Dr. T. Thorell, who 

 already on previous occasions had included Burmese Arachnida in 

 the long series of invaluable memoirs by which he has advanced 

 our knowledge of this class. Professor Thorell readily undertook 

 the work, but found the collection much richer than he anticipated, 

 and, in fact, devoted the greater part of his time for the last three 

 years to its examination and description. The manuscript, when 

 completed, proved to be too extensive for publication in a periodical, 

 and therefore the Trustees considered it best that it should be 

 published in the form of a separate work. 



The best thanks are due to Mr. Oates for this important donation 

 to the Museum, and to Professor Thorell for the great service he 

 has rendered to science by working out the collection. 



ALBERT GUNTHER, 



Keeper of the Department of Zoology. 



British Museum (N. H.), 

 March 1st, 1895. 



