204 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



I was one day in an omnibus, in the corner of which 

 sat a butcher. Presently a man got in, whose blue ging- 

 ham coat indicated the same trade. He seated himself 

 opposite the other, and the two were soon in conversation. 

 "Do you know Jackson?" says A. "No," says B; 

 " where does he slaughter?" The reply gave me a new 

 idea ; he evidently considered that " slaughtering " was 

 the only occupation worthy of a man, and therefore the 

 only one worthy of man's thought. Spiders are just the 

 same. If an Epeira met a Clubiona, probably the first 

 interchange of civilities would be something like- — " Where 

 do you slaughter ? " 



" No one," says Professor Eymer Jones, " who looks at 

 the armature of a Spider's jaws can mistake the intention 

 with which this terrible apparatus was planned. ' Murder ' 

 is engraved legibly on every piece that enters into its com- 

 position." But surely the Professor is rather severe. I 

 do not think this paragraph was written on an autumn 

 morning, when the flies had driven him out of bed prema- 

 turely early, by incessantly alighting on his nose ; nor on 

 coming home from a summer evening's walk through the 

 marsh, where clouds of singing and stinging gnats had 

 been the only objects of cognisance to sight, hearing, and 

 feeling. If so, he would have been ready to pronounce 

 " killing no murder," and have blessed the slaughtering 

 Spiders as pursuing a most praiseworthy and useful occu- 

 pation. Circumstances change opinions. 



We will not, then, touch the moral question ; but just 

 look at this apparatus from the head of one of our common 

 Spiders [Clubiona atrox), a long-legged and swift species, 

 that builds a compact cloth-like web in our out-houses, 

 with a gallery open at each end for retreat in danger. 

 The specimen is a part of the slough or cast skin, which 

 you may always find in the neighbourhood of such a web ; 

 and it is particularly suitable for examination, because it 

 is sloughed in the most perfect condition ; every part, the 



