Cambridge. — On the Spiders of Neio Zealand. 199 



with spirit, 'making it impossible for that in the tubes to evaporate until the 

 whole of that in the bottle has evaporated, which, if the glass-stopper fits 

 pretty well, will not be for several years. In each tube two or more specimens 

 — male and female — may be placed, one above the other, according to the 

 length of the tube, and some specimens are placed so as to shew the upper, and 

 others to shew the under-side. When bottles so filled are arranged on narrow 

 shelves not too far from the eye, they have a very neat appearance, and allow 

 the spiders to be seen through the two glasses easily and perfectly — of course, 

 the bottle must be taken in hand to examine the contents at all closely, and 

 must be turned round to bring those spiders on the opposite side into view. 

 For critical purposes, any tube may be taken out, and the spiders themselves 

 removed from the tube without injury or difficulty, and as easily replaced; it 

 is only necessary to use a pair of fine pliers with which to handle the specimens, 

 and a pair of longer and larger ones, with oval cork or silk-padded points, with 

 which to put in the tubes or remove them from the bottles. The label with 

 the spider's name on it can be easily read through both the tube and bottle, if 

 put in so as to coil closely round the inside of the former, which is, with very 

 little practice, a simple matter to effect. The advantage of having the label 

 inside is obvious ; for it cannot then be rubbed off" by external friction, and it 

 can be removed and replaced at pleasure. 



After many trials of different ways of managing test-tubes of spirit in 

 which spiders have been placed, I can at last pronounce the above plan to be 

 almost entirely satisfactory. When stopped with corks, and laid or kept 

 upright in drawers, the spirit was quickly and constantly evaporating, 

 requiring frequent re-filling ; besides which, the corks soon became rotten with 

 the action of the spirit, and not only allowed that in the tube to evaporate, 

 but also, often breaking in removal, caused considerable trouble, and some- 

 times damage to the specimens, in getting out the portion left in the tube. 

 Another evil has also vanished by the use of wool pledgets instead of corks, 

 and that is, the occasionally serious cuts to the fingers from the sudden 

 breakage of the tubes in corking. As the greater part of my own collection 

 is intended for purely scientific pui-poses, I only take the trouble to set out 

 here and there a specimen for the delectation of unscientific or " goodness 

 gracious" friends ; for when set out they occvipy, of course, far more space in 

 a tube than when put in just as they happen to come out from the effects of 

 the chloroform or other stupefying agent. A single tube will often thus 

 contain up to twenty or more examples unset, but never more that one species 

 in a tube, and often only one sex. In all cases the name of the species, or a 

 number written on parchment, should be placed in each tube, as above 

 described. Glass-stoppered bottles, containing inverted wool-stopped tubes of 

 unset spiders, may be tilled quite full of the tubes, since there is no object in 



