90 PECKHAM. [Vol. 1, 



when I became conscious of my eyes resting on a bird-excreta- 

 marked leaf. How strange, I thought, it is that I have never 

 got another specimen of that curious spider I found in Java 

 which simulated a patch just like this ! 1 plucked the leaf by 

 the petiole while so cogitating, and looked at it half listlessly 

 for some moments, mentally remarking how closely that other 

 spider had copied nature, when, to my delighted surprise, I 

 discovered that I had actually secured a second specimen, but 

 the imitation was so exquisite that I really did not perceive how 

 matters stood for some moments. The spider never moved while 

 I was plucking or twirling the leaf, and it was only when I placed 

 the tip of my little finger on it, that I observed that it was a 

 spider, when it, without any displacement of itself, flashed its 

 falces into my flesh. 



"The first specimen I got was in AV. .Java, while hunting 

 one day for Lepidoptera. I observed a specimen of one of the 

 Hesperidge sitting, as is often a custom of theirs, on the excreta 

 of a bird on a leaf; I crept near it, intending to examine what 

 they find in what one is inclined to consider incongruous food 

 for a butterfly. I approached nearer and nearer, and at last 

 caught it between my fingers, when I found that it had as I 

 thought become glued by its feet to the mass; but on pulling 

 gently the spider, to my amazement, disclosed itself by letting 

 go its hold; only then did I discover that I was not looking on a 

 veritable bird's excreta. * * The spider is in general color white, 

 spotted here and there with black; on the underside its rather 

 irregularly shaped and prominent abdomen is almost all white, 

 of a pure chalk white; the angles of the legs are, however, .shining 

 jet-black. The spider does not make an ordinary web, but 

 only the thinnest film on the surface of the leaf. The appear- 

 ance of the excreta rather recently left by a bird on a leaf is 

 well known. Tliere is a pure white deposit in the centre, thin- 

 ning out round the margin, while in the central mass are dark 

 portions variously disposed; as the leaf is rarely horizontal, the 

 more liquid portions run for some distance. Now, this spider 

 one might almost imagine to have in its rambles 'marked and 



