Spiders colleeted in Neighbourhood of Kdinburgh. 529 
Although the country around Edinburgh has long been so 
largely under tillage and pasture, we have still left to us— 
not in the bleak uplands alone, but even in the warmer 
districts near the sea, and well sheltered by plantations—a 
few bits of unreclaimed land, where golden furze or purple 
heather flourish with all the luxuriance we are accustomed 
to associate with less “improved” areas. Then, dells with 
wooded banks and open sunny spaces are almost a feature 
in the district; and we have, of course, the lovely gardens 
and pleasure-grounds attached to the mansions of the 
nobility. Marshy spots, and rush- and reed-fringed lochs— 
though far less numerous than formerly —are scattered 
around, and coast sandhills are not wanting. Nor must we 
forget the Pentlands, rising as they do to a height of close 
on 2000 feet above sea-level, and the other hills in the 
vicinity. The fact that here the mountains abut upon the 
east-coast plain would lead us to expect a mingling of 
the older alpine fauna with some of the newer immigrants 
which characterise eastern and south-eastern Britain. 
It will thus be seen that, in spite of plough and east 
wind, a large proportion of the Spiders inhabiting Scotland 
may be expected to occur in the Edinburgh district, more 
especially when regarded im the larger sense in which the 
term is now generally employed, namely, as the area falling 
within a radius of twenty to thirty miles of the city. But 
while we believe the district will,in the matter of species, 
hold its own with most other Scottish areas of like extent, 
there can be little doubt that, as regards individuals, it will 
not take a very high place. Experience gained in Strathspey 
and some other parts of the Highlands seems to render this 
view highly probable. 
Of previous research in the distriet we know of none save 
what the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge was able to accomplish 
in the course of a few days’ visit to Edinburgh in June 1861. 
His observations, made almost entirely during three excur- 
sions to Arthur’s Seat, and one to the Pentlands above 
Currie, will be found in an interesting paper entitled “ Sketch 
of an Arachnological Tour in Scotland in 1861; with a 
List of Scotch Spiders,” which was communicated to The 
