Miscellaneous. 



the strongly keeled scales and the seven npper labial shields. Total 

 length 38". 



Discovered by Mr. James J. Wilcox near Grafton, in the Clarence 

 River district. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Habits ©/"Lycosa Blackwallii. 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — In the description of the large Madeiran Lycosa 

 (L. Blackioallii), printed in the August Number of the ' Annals,' I 

 was not able to say much about the habits of this spider. I have, 

 however, been lately favoured with some notes on this subject by my 

 friend Mr. F. Pollock, who obtained specimens from the mountains 

 above Funchal, in localities at a height of 2000 feet at least above 

 the sea. He kept them alive for some months, and brought several 

 females with him to England. These notes you will, I dare say, 

 consider worthy of being printed. 



" It seems to be the custom," Mr. Pollock writes, " for this spider 

 either to take possession of or to excavate holes, four or five inches 

 deep, in a sloping bank, at the height of four or five feet above a 

 piece of level ground. At the mouth of the hole is placed a web, 

 with an opening at the middle for the egress of the spider ; but I do 

 not think the inside of the hole is lined vdth a web. They are rather 

 slow in their movements when dug out during the daytime. Instead 

 of running away, they would stand at bay, even showing fight and 

 seizing with their falces any stick presented to them. As I never 

 met with one outside its hole, their habits are probably nocturnal ; 

 and when they issue from their places of concealment in search of 

 prey, their movements are doubtless more rapid than by day. When 

 two or three have been put into the same box, I have seen them run 

 after one another with great quickness. They are exceedingly 

 pugnacious ; for on one occasion, when I placed several individuals 

 together in the same box, they all fought together, and not one sur- 

 vived. They are remarkably fearless, and would seize a wasp and 

 devour it at once, without any sort of protection such as an Epeira 

 makes by surrounding its prey with web. 



"From the 7th to the 19th of April, I kept some of these spiders 

 alive in separate cells of a box, feeding them on bluebottles and 

 wasps. I then brought them to England with me, where they arrived 

 on May 7th, having been shut up in a box which was placed in a 

 packed portmanteau, which portmanteau was also put in the hold of 

 the ship ; so that it is evident they require very little air, and can go 

 a long time without food. On arriving in England, they were placed 

 in small sieves with a sheet of glass over them. They never seemed 

 to make any lines, except on one occasion, when two very fine females 

 got loose and fought like bull-dogs, and I had great difficulty in se- 

 parating them : during the combat, I observed one of them attach 



