404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



riana), which is to be found on the higher stony ground, and with 

 its shining green eyes, powerful jaws, and hairy, tawny-coloured 

 legs, is altogether a most wicked-looking monster. Like the rest of 

 its genus, it makes little or no web, and lives a secluded life beneath 

 some particular stone, surrounded by the empty shells of numerous 

 small land snails (Helix paupercula), which apparently form its 

 principal food. With its powerful jaws it makes a hole in the 

 side of the shell, and gradually sucks out the mollusc, and this 

 diet is varied with millipeds and small isopodous Crustacea, its 

 nest being surrounded by their chitinous remains. The Portu- 

 guese are very much afraid of these large spiders, and no doubt 

 with good reason, for they must be capable of inflicting a severe 

 and most poisonous bite ; but there is another much smaller 

 black species (Latrodectus 13-guttatus) with a diminutive head and 

 much swollen and rounded abdomen, like a black currant, which 

 is held in much greater dread. The fangs are so small that it 

 appears a most harmless insect, and it has frequently been 

 handled by one of the writers with perfect impunity ; but all the 

 same, we have been since informed on the best authority that it 

 can not only bite but is extremely poisonous. Porto Santo 

 would be a most delightful place to spend a week or so, and we 

 greatly regretted that an outbreak of smallpox prevented our 

 returning there again in May to make a much more complete 

 examination of this and the other rocky islets of the group. There 

 is fair accommodation to be had in the little fishing village, but it 

 would undoubtedly be very much pleasanter and more comfortable 

 to take one's own tenting-gear and camp out. Those who are 

 fond of sea fishing would find plenty of amusement. 



A week after our arrival at Madeira we sailed for the Canaries, 

 and found ourselves early on April 19th in the port of Santa Cruz 

 (Teneriffe), a bright sun shining, and our spirit?, which had been 

 somewhat damped by the failure of our plans at Madeira, and by 

 the continuously bad weather which we had experienced so far, 

 correspondingly elated. Our steamer waited here till midnight, 

 so we drove up to Laguna, and spent a pleasant day strolling 

 about the green lanes in the immediate vicinity of that village, a 

 place too well known to need detailed description here. There 

 was no lack of bird life. On the way up we saw many Swifts and 

 Pipits, Ravens, Kestrels, Kites, and Hoopoes, and near Laguna, 

 Canaries, Common Buntings, Blackcaps, Spectacled Warblers, 



