464 CULLODEN. 



Mr. Hill informs me, are the feeble notices of a very 

 special instinct. 



The creature itself, an insect of much beauty, fell 

 under my own observation. It was at Culloden, an 

 estate near Bluefields, the undulating and down-like 

 pastures of which are thickly studded with palm-trees, 

 chiefly of the Fan-thatch {Borassus flahelliformis ?), 

 and the bristling Ebby-palm {Acrocomia sclerocarpd). 

 Immense clumps of Prickly-pear have spread them- 

 selves over the rocky surface, and among the oval 

 nodes of these were placed many irregular, perpen- 

 dicular nets, geometric towards the middle. The 

 very centre of each web was occupied by an elegant 

 Spider, hanging head downward, the upper part of 

 whose body was of a glistening satiny or silvery 

 whiteness, the belly yellow spotted with black, and 

 the legs marked with alternate rings of the same 

 contrasting hues. It was the Epeira argentata of 

 Fabricius, or a species closely allied to it. The 

 interesting peculiarities detailed in the following 

 communication from my friend, escaped my own 

 observation, in my eagerness to secure the specimens, 

 of which I took three. The season was May, but 

 Mr. Hill's facts were observed in January. 



" In a garden passage bordered with a hedge of 

 the Triphasia {Limonia trifoliata of Linnaeus), a 

 spider's web had attracted my attention in consequence 

 of its containing in the centre a thick tissue of zig-zag 

 lacings, which gave it the appearance of being orna- 

 mented with a Saltier cross. On examining what 

 there was peculiar in the Spider to lead to the 

 peculiarity in the web, a little observation rendered 



