CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 73 



Dr. Lister to Mr. Wkay. 



Dear Friend, — I am very glad Mr. Willugliby is 

 near well again, and I thank God for his recovery, and 

 do heartily pray a continuance of good health to him. 

 Methinks he is very valetudinary, and you have often 

 alarmed me with his illness. My humble service to him. 

 I thank you for the Book of Proverbs you design me. 

 I cannot, methinks, exclude these hair-tailed insects 

 from the family or genus of wasps, although all of them 

 that I know are, in a strict sense, neither favicous nor 

 gregarious, nor have artificial meat stored up for them ; 

 yet have they the shape and parts of wasps exactly, as 

 well in the worm and chrysalis as when they are in per- 

 fection. Besides, I have observed a peculiar note belong- 

 ing to the bee-kind which is not wanting in these, and 

 that is three balls in a triangle in the forehead of them 

 all, which nobody hitherto, that I know of, has taken 

 notice of. But I much like the making of genuses and 

 tribes ex moribus et vita, though I would not, as near as 

 may be, have the form excluded. I have now seen the 

 November book ; and I find in my adversaria that 1 

 have formerly dug out of the ground at Burn ell, in Lin- 

 colnshire, many just such-like cases, made of thin wafers, 

 or membranes, one sticking in a direct line to another, 

 &c. In the same place I very frequently met with little 

 hollow balls, of the shape and size of pistol bullets, of 

 yellow wax, wherein was one small white maggot, with- 

 out any meat at all. Indeed, these balls were much 

 tenderer than wax, and of a very fragrant smell, and 

 perhaps might serve them as well for food as housing. 

 If I had the table of spiders I now could make some 

 small alterations and additions to it. I have, this last 

 month, Avrit over a new copy of my History of Spi- 

 ders (which is the fourth since I put my notes into any 

 order), and inserted therein all the last summer's ob- 

 servations and experiments. I find only two or three 



