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bility, that we shall no longer be dependant on foreign countries for 

 our ink. But neither good nor evil is unmixed : if we gain ink 

 wherewith to record these phenomena, we lack the customary stock of 

 acorns, a fact which having been pointed out to our Devon farmers, 

 they already tremble for their pigs. 



Silk-p roducing Insec ts. 



It will be seen recorded, in the last Anniversary Address, that, at 

 the January meeting of 1855, tlve President exhibited a specimen of 

 silk felt, produced at Vienna by the larvae of Saturnia Spiui : he 

 described it as impervious to water, and detailed the manner in which 

 the insects were managed to ensure its production : in connexion 

 with this subject he subsequently stated that an Austrian patent had 

 been taken out for the manufacture of this felt into hats. At the 

 June meeting Mr. D'Urban exhibited cocoons, in various states, of 

 Saturnia cecropia, a North -American species of great beauty, and 

 recommended its introduction into England as a valuable silk-pro- 

 ducing insect : it was capable of withstanding the effects of severe 

 cold, and its food plants (Prunus pennsylvanica and P. serotina) grew 

 freely in this country. 



Bird-eating Spiders. 



At the May meeting was read a portion of a letter from Mr. Bates, 

 in which he positively states that he found two finches, one of them 

 dead and the other nearly so, in the web of a huge Mygale, on the 

 trunk of a tree : he further states that there are, in the same district, 

 vast numbers of Capriraulgidai and ground doves which lay their eggs 

 on the ground : he states further, from actual observation, that the 

 Mygales are strictly nocturnal animals, concealing themselves in deep 

 burrows in the earth by day, and he thinks they feed on the birds 

 themselves and their eggs. Much as we are indebted to Mr. Bates 

 for these interesting observations, we cannot but observe that both 

 the observations and the reasoning are somewhat incomplete: for in- 

 stance, the fact of the finches being entangled in the web, and in the 

 presence of the spider, yet without any web being wound round them, 

 and without any noticed injury to their bodies, has rather the appear- 

 ance of an accidental occurrence than a design : again, INIr. Bates's 

 assertion that these spiders are nocturnal animals, carefully secreting 

 themselves in burrows by day and roving about only at night, — an 

 assertion supported by the concurrent evidence of Humboldt, Maclcay 



