184 MR. J. W. KIEKBY ON THE FOSSILS OF THE 



Capture of a Rare Spider at Gosforth. — "When sweeping some 

 withered grass, in Gosforth woods, on the 18th of this month 

 (September), I caught a large female of Epeirus scalaris, a very 

 beautiful spider, which is figured in Walton's British Spiders, 

 Plate XXIY, fig. 240, and which has not hitherto been found in 

 the North of England. 



Rapacity of a Spider. — In coming to town one morning in 

 July last, I noticed a good sized moth fluttering across the foot- 

 path. It was a Noctua, and looking closely to it I found that 

 there was good ground for its alarm, for a small brown spider 

 (with a body not so large as a small pea) was mounted on its 

 back. Grasping the thorax of the moth with its legs, the vam- 

 pire had its fangs buried in the neck of the moth, and was so 

 intent on its prey, that I boxed both without its quitting it. 

 Looking into the box a few hours after, I found the moth dead, 

 and the spider spinning a shroud over it. 

 — Long Benton, September 27th, 1865. 



XX. — On the Fossils of the Marl-slate and Lower Magnesian 

 Limestone {Durham, No. II). By James W. Ejrxby. 



In a former paper, published in the Transactions of the Tyneside 

 Naturalists' Field Club, I noticed the occurrence of several spe- 

 cies of fossils in the lower beds of the Permian series, at Hartley's 

 Quarry, Sunderland. As I have since found additional species in 

 that locality, I propose to emend the list of species formerly given 

 as occurring there, and to notice some other localities in the Lower 

 Magnesian Limestone of North Durham, where fossils have lately 

 been discovered. There are no new species to describe in doing 

 this, my object being merely to contribute a little towards a 

 better understanding of the distribution of those already known. 

 As this communication will probably be followed by others 

 having reference to the fossils occurring in the lower beds of the 

 Magnesian Limestone, in localities more to the southward, as 



