32 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



ing- Speci- 

 mens. 



indicate the species, and these placed in small paper trays (see Fig. 19), 

 bound in by two India rubber bands slipped over the box. These trays 

 are placed upon end inside of my cabinet boxes, and the name 

 of the species marked distinctly on the top. Any other notes 

 as to date, locality, etc., can be jotted upon the back or on the 

 inside of the tray. The trays may be readily stored in boxes 

 with stiff pasteboard or wooden partitions, according to the width of the 

 tray, and the whole kept in a small cabinet. (Fig. 20.) A quite small 

 cabinet will suffice to contain all the species of any neighborhood. 



A stout umbrella is a very important implement in collecting. The 

 open umbrella should be placed (handle upwards) underneath the bushes, 

 and these beaten in the ordinary way. When the umbrella is lifted aside, 

 there will be found numbers of insects of various kinds, along with bits 



of leaves, twigs, etc., and more or 

 fewer spiders of various sorts. These 

 can readily be taken in boxes or in 

 the collecting bottle. I have often 

 found advantage in holding the um- 

 brella off a little distance and invert- 

 ing it slowly. The rubbish will drop 

 on the ground and the spiders will 

 also fall, but hold on to the little 

 dropline which they instinctively 

 throw 7 out when falling. The bottle 

 can then be rapidly placed beneath 

 these swinging individuals, w r ho are 

 thus secured. The ordinary ento- 

 mologist's bag may also be used for sweeping the grasses and hedge rows. 

 Many species will be found by sifting the fallen leaves and other rubbish 

 of the woods and fields, within which they hide. Others will be found 

 underneath the bark of old trees and fallen logs. 



A cupping glass and a card usually answer for collecting large ground 

 spiders. I have taken the great tarantula of Texas in this way, watching 

 my opportunity to slip the glass over the animal. The card is 

 Spiders tnen g raf l ua ^y introduced between the glass and the ground, 

 and the spider can thus be lifted up in the hand. A small vial 

 of chloroform or ether for such purposes may be carried in the satchel. 

 A pellet of cotton, moistened in either of these drugs, if slipped under- 

 neath the card within the cupping glass, will soon overcome the animal, 

 which may then be dropped without inconvenience into the alcohol. 



I have never had any hesitation in handling our indigenous spiders in 

 order to collect them, though, of course, I should not care to lay hands 

 on a tarantula, and am careful with our largest species of Lycosids. But 

 there are few spiders, perhaps there are none, in our Northern and Mid- 



Fio. 20. A collector's cabinet. 



