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Spiders collected in Neighbourhood of Edinlurgh. 
XXXIV. A List of Spiders (Araneidea) collected in the Neigh- 
bourhood of Edinburgh. By Grorce H. CARPENTER, B.Sc., 
and WILLIAM Evans, F.R.S.E. [Plate XII.] 
(Read 19th April 1893; revised for publication to 20th June 1894.) 
[Introductory Note by W. Evans.—The idea of collecting 
material for a list of the Spiders of the Edinburgh dis- 
trict first occurred to me in the summer of 1888. While 
pursuing other branches of natural history, my attention 
had often been arrested by the great variety and interest- 
ing ways of these much-despised creatures; and in due 
time there came the desire to know their names, and 
something more of their habits and economy. Books and 
other sources of information were thereupon consulted, and 
through them the fact was soon revealed that the Spider-fauna 
of the country around Edinburgh had practically never been 
investigated—the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge’s four or five 
days’ visit in 1861 being apparently all that had been done in 
this direction. Indeed, as a field for arachnological research, 
the greater part of Scotland was, and still is, almost virgin soil. 
Here, then, was opportunity for useful observations which 
might very well be carried on simultaneously with other 
field-work without mueh additional labour. Accordingly, 
during the summer of 1888, as already indieated, I began 
collecting Spiders, and have continued doing so at intervals 
ever since. The naming of them, however, was a much 
more serious matter; and, after mastering some thirty or 
forty of the more conspicuous species, it became plain that 
the determination of any considerable part of the others 
would require much more time aud study than I was able 
to give to the subject. The aid—and a large amount of that, 
too—of some one well versed in this particular branch of 
zoology was indispensable if further progress was to be 
made; and it was, therefore, a source of much satisfaction 
to me to learn that Mr G. H. Carpenter, of the Science and 
Art Museum, Dublin, was willing to go over my specimens, 
and name them for me. I cannot sufficiently express my 
indebtedness to Mr Carpenter for the great trouble he has 
VOL. XII. 2M 
