Arachnida, 6893 



A List of Southport Spiders ; with some Remarks on Uniformity 

 of Use and Meaning of Words in Natural^ History. By The 

 Rev. O. Pickard-Cambeidge, B.A. 



In addition to the supplement of my last year's list, I subjoin a list 

 of spiders, observed and captured during the past season at Southport 

 and in its neighbourhood. Local lists, besides having a local interest, 

 are certain steps towards a more correct generalization, in regard to 

 the distribution of species. In this list it will be seen that out of the 

 two tribes of the order Araneidea known to inhabit Great Britain, but 

 one is represented; of the families making up this tribe, nine out of 

 ten are represented (the tenth, however, contains but one British 

 genus and one British species) ; and out of twenty-eight genera com- 

 posing the families eighteen are represented ; and lastly, out of 

 two hundred and seventy species contained in the twenty-eight 

 genera eighty are represented. 



I do not pretend to say that this is a perfect list, for on one side of 

 Southport lies a vast tract of fen or moss land, which I have hardly 

 ever had time to search at all ; but the ground I have searched, prin- 

 cipally the sand-hills along the coast, has been ransacked pretty 

 thoroughly ; and, therefore, as the area is so much the more confused, 

 the list is perhaps of so much the greater value. The relative 

 abundance of species in any locality is also, I think, of importance, 

 but the words we commonly use to denote their abundance or 

 the contrary are generally so vague, and used or understood by 

 different naturalists in so different a sense, that I will just in a 

 few words try to explain the value of the general terms " rare," 

 " common," &c., appended to the names in the list, as I use and 

 understand them. 



The term very common is used to denote that the species may be 

 taken, in its season, in the locality in question, as we should say in 

 popular language " in any numbers," that is, that a hundred or 

 so might be captured during an afternoon of four or five hours, 

 and this without any special search for it. 



Common denotes that, in popular language, " a great many " 

 might be taken in the above time, that is to the number of, say, forty 

 or fifty, and this with but slight search specially for it. 



Frequent denotes that a score or so might be taken, in the same 

 time, with an ordinarily careful search for it. 



