PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 29 
distance, but raise themselves from the ground with a spring, and eking ont 
their momentum as much as they can by buzzing their wings, fall to the 
ground after a short flight. I watched these little Flying-fish fly along 
before the boat, at the height of about a foot above the water, for distances 
of fifteen or twenty yards, and I chased and caught one or two with a hand- 
net amongst the weed. Dr. Mobius, who similarly watched the flight of a 
species of Flying Gurnet, maintains that neither forms of Flying-fish flap 
their wings at all during flight. I do not consider the question as yet set at 
rest. Of course no Flying-fish can raise themselves in the air at all by 
means of their wings alone.” [The italics are ours.—ED.] 
Hasits or tHe TarentuLa.—Herr V. Bergsd, in a recent work, ‘ Fra 
Mark og Skov,’ has given some interesting data in regard to the habits of 
the Tarentula, Lycosa tarentula, Latr., whose nests he has traced and 
examined on the Roman Campagna. He found that the nest, which was 
well rounded and smooth, was approached by a tunnel which, after running 
about a foot straight down below the surface of the ground, made a sudden 
short turn before it finally descended for about another foot into the spider’s 
abode. The entrance to the tunnel is concealed by an arched covering 
made by the interlacing of grasses and leaves. The eggs are inclosed in a 
spun bag, and the young appear in the autumn, when they immediately 
seat themselves on the body of the mother, where they remain till about 
April, neither parent nor offspring seeking food during their hybernation. 
As many as 291 individuals were on one occasion removed in February 
from the body of an emaciated Tarentula. The superstitious error of 
assuming that the bite of the animal induces an irresistible desire of dancing 
is due to the fact, that dancing having been originally employed as a remedy 
against the poison, which is believed to be eliminated by profuse perspiration, 
the action of the poison was confounded with the means of its eradication.— 
* Nature,’ November 25th. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Linnean Socrery or Lonpon. 
November 18, 1880.—Ropert M‘Lacutay, Esq., F'.R.S., in the chair. 
Lieut.-Col. H. Godwin-Austen was elected a fellow of the Society. 
Dr. George E. Dobson exhibited a remarkable parasitic worm, taken by 
him from the intestinal canal of Megaderma frons, from the Gold Coast. 
It appears to be allied to Pterygodermatites playiostoma, Wedl, from the 
intestine of the Long-eared Hedgehog, Hrinaceus auritus, though on the 
