CHAPTER XXIII 



OBSERVATIONS ON WOOD-LICE AND CENTIPEDES 



IT has been said that there is no British animal about which there 

 does not remain something to be found out. What is more, there 

 are plenty of creatures with regard to which very little is known, 

 and in work which arises out of nature-study there will be all the 

 more satisfaction if the observer feels that he is adding to general 

 knowledge as well as to his own. We have already alluded to- 

 spiders' webs,* but there are plenty of spiders to be looked for which 

 make no snares or only such as are inconspicuous. There are not 

 many students of spiders in this country, and a lifetime might be 

 spent in learning the peculiar habits of these animals. 



There is a fascination also about finding any creature which the 

 student has not met with before, but the pleasure is increased when 

 the first record is made for the country generally. 



If there are few who work at the animals just mentioned, there are 

 still fewer who know anything of our wood-lice, centipedes, or milli- 

 pedes (see figures 176 and 177). This makes it all the more possible 

 that practically at the outset anyone who seriously devotes himself 

 to such a tribe or class may be able to add species to the British list.f 

 One of the reasons why spiders and centipedes have been neglected 



* Part I, page 44. 



t When attention was turned to the wood-lice of Eton, three species were discovered 

 which had not been recorded for England. 



45 



