204 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



I was one day in an omnibus, in the corner of which 

 sat a butcher. Presently a man got in, whose blue ging- 

 ham coat indicated the same trade. He seated himself 

 opposite the other, and the two were soon in conversation. 

 " Do you know Jackson?" says A. "No," says B; 

 " where does he slaughter?" The reply gave me anew 

 idea ; he evidently considered that " slaughtering " was 

 the only occupation worthy of a man, and therefore the 

 only one worthy of man's thought. Spiders are just the 

 same. If an Epeira met a Clubiona, probably the first 

 interchange of civilities would be something like " Where 

 do you slaughter ? " 



" No one," says Professor Bymer Jones, " who looks' at 

 the armature of a Spider's jaws can mistake the intention 

 with which this terrible apparatus was planned. ' Murder ' 

 is engraved legibly on every piece that enters into its com- 

 position." But surely the Professor is rather severe. I 

 do not think this paragraph was written on an autumn 

 morning, when the flies had driven him out of bed prema- 

 turely early, by incessantly alighting on his nose ; nor on 

 coming home from a summer evening's walk through the 

 marsh, where clouds of singing and stinging gnats had 

 been the only objects- of cognisance to sight, hearing, and 

 feeling. If so, he would have been ready to pronounce 

 " killing no murder," and have blessed the slaughtering 

 Spiders as pursuing a most praiseworthy and useful occu- 

 pation. Circumstances change opinions. 



We will not, then, touch the moral question ; but just 

 look at this apparatus from the head of one of our common 

 Spiders (Clubiona atrox), a long-legged and swift species, 

 that builds a compact cloth-like web in our out-houses, 

 with a gallery open at each end for retreat in danger. 

 The specimen is a part of the slough or cast skin, which 

 you may always find in the neighbourhood of such a web ; 

 and it is particularly suitable for examination, because it 

 is sloughed in the most perfect condition ; every part, the 



