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196 T'ransactions.— Zoology. 
perfect even in this mode of capture. It is often impossible to capture minute 
spiders quickly without wetting the finger and laying it lightly upon them. 
The spider adheres for an instant, during which the finger is applied to the 
open mouth of a bottle of spirits carried in the pocket, and the spider is at 
once immersed. When a spider is seized in the fingers it should always be an 
endeavour to get hold of it by at least two legs, for one leg would most 
probably be thrown off by the muscular power which spiders can exert at will, 
provided they have sufficient free motion. Collectors often complain of the 
brittleness of spiders’ legs, but in most cases it results from the instinct of self- 
preservation, which teaches the spider to give up something rather than lose 
all. I have seldom found that spiders can throw off their limbs if held by two 
of them at once. An easy and good way of capturing spiders at rest is with a 
pill-box ; the bottom in one hand and the lid in the other encloses them 
quickly and safely ; for spiders running on the ground, or on walls or trunks 
of trees, an ordinary entomological hoop-net is most useful. The net is placed 
(if on the ground) in front of the spider, and with the disengaged hand it is 
easily guided or driven into the net, whence it must be boxed into a pill-box, 
like an insect. If the spider is on a wall (no easy place to capture a spider by 
any other means) the net is held underneath, and then with a twig in the 
other hand it is dexterously jerked or flipped off into the net. The moment a 
spider is seen on a wall, or tree trunk, or other similar situation, the net should 
immediately be placed beneath it, as many spiders drop off the instant that 
danger even approaches, and would probably be lost entirely if there were 
bushes or herbage, or rocky and broken ground below. The hoop-net is also 
most useful for beating bushes and boughs of trees into ; but perhaps for this 
purpose, and for shaking moss, cut grass, and débris into, nothing is superior, 
or in fact equal, to a very large common (but strong) cotton umbrella—a 
regular Sarah Gamp. The hoop-net is, however, the best for sweeping amongst 
long grass, rushes, or herbage of every kind, for upon such spiders usually 
abound. Spiders which spin a geometric web very often live in it, or close by, 
and yet can seldom be secured unless as a preliminary the net or umbrella be 
placed well underneath before the examination of the web is begun, but by 
taking this precaution the tenant usually drops in and is secured at once, 
According to some or other then of the above modes of capture, the spiders 
will be safely secured in pill-boxes of various sizes—but never more than one 
spider in a box, for obvious reasons ; a drop or two of chloroform, allowed to 
run inside the very slightly opened lid, stupefies the inmate in a few moments, 
when it may be minutely examined, its colours noted, etc., etc, and then 
dropped into the wide mouthed bottle of spirit of wine carried in the pocket 
or tied to the button-hole by a short string. To preserve an accurate record 
of localities, etc., it is perhaps advisable to write a memorandum in pencil on 
