152 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



opening to allow them to escape. It is not generally known that 

 young spiders undergo several changes after they are hatched 

 before they leave the egg-sac. When first hatched they appear in 

 the form of a pupa, the legs being folded under a thin transparent 

 skin. In two or three days this skin bursts open and comes off, 

 when the legs are set free. They are, however, of little use at this 

 stage, being swollen and shapeless. About two days later another 

 skin is shed, and the young spider is now able to run about and 

 spin a web, which until now he had no power to do. After 

 shedding the third skin the body is covered with bristles, which 

 were formed under the old skin. The legs, also, have become 

 longer, and the joints more plainly visible. When the third skin is 

 shed the body is not covered with hair, the bristles only appearing, 

 the body still having a white, transparent appearance. The hair, 

 however, begins to grow at once, and in about two or three days 

 the body is thickly covered — giving to it a much darker colour. 

 They are now ready to leave the egg-sac and spin webs for them- 

 selves, although they will live and grow for many weeks without 

 food. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Ethel Cottage, Longm ore-street, West Beach, 



St. Kilda, 22nd October, 1889. 



Dear Baron, — Although having had the honour of your 

 acquaintance at least 25 years, you may not know that I am an 

 old sportsman, so far as rod and gun are concerned, and an 

 amateur naturalist in a very small degree. As such, however, I 

 beg leave to say as follows : — I was very glad to learn some time 

 back that your society had obtained protection for several in- 

 teresting birds. I venture to suggest that protection during the 

 present season should be extended to the two species of Lapwing 

 commonly named Plover, the Brown Rail, the so-called Native 

 Hen, or Red-legged Bald Coot, and the Common Heron, because 

 he preys much on big water insects which devour the spawn and 

 the fry of fishes in their youngest stage. There may be several 

 other birds deserving of protection, but their names do not occur 

 to me at this moment. 



Several years back I had been fishing in the Yarra at Cor- 

 anderrk, and set a strong line with two middle-sized hooks on 

 it, baited with two big worms each, in hopes of catching a big eel, 

 but instead found a Platypus on one of them. He had taken the 

 bait as a duck would, and was hooked inside of the bill. He 

 wound the line several times round his neck and round a dead 

 branch under water, and was drowned. 



I hope these scraps may be of some little interest to you, and 

 remain, with best wishes, yours sincerely, 



H. H. NEWENHAM. 

 Baron von Mueller. 



