294 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 
Notes oF A Tour IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER oF 1868, To SicILy anD 
PortueaL. By Epwarp Preercevat Wricut, M. A., M.D., F.L.S., 
Professor of Zoology, Trinity College, Dublin. (Plate XII.) 
[Read December 3, 1868, wide antea, p. 202. | 
My friend, Mr. A. H. Haliday, and myself had often projected a month’s 
tour in Sicily during the spring, but many things from time to time 
came in the way of all our plans, until early in April, 1868, when he 
wrote to me to say that he intended leaving Lucca, where he was then 
residing, at once for the Campagna, there to spend a few days col- 
lecting, then to go to Naples, and there to await my arrival, when we 
would both start for Messina, and see how much we could doina month’s 
tour in Sicily. I was not able to leave Dublin until the 25th of April; 
and stopping a couple of days in London, I arrived in Paris on the 28th. 
This day was spent partly in the company of N. Walsh, a rising Irish 
artist, and partly with Professor Milne Edwards, at the Jardin des 
Plantes. At one o’clock in the morning of the 1st of May, I crossed 
Mont Cenis; an accident had happened to the railway, and it was 
necessary to cross in the diligence. The travelling by rail between 
Turin and Florence was not much quicker, for all the Italian world 
was rushing to the latter city to be present at the fetes held there in 
consequence of the marriage of the Princess Marguerite, and the trains 
were overcrowded, and much behind time. Two days were most 
agreeably spent in lovely Florence with an old friend. The weather 
was very warm for the season of the year; and, besides many wonderful 
artificial phenomena, incident on the fetes, I witnessed one natural 
phenomenon which was novel to me. Going to the top of the house to 
get some rain-water from a clean earthenware bowl for photographic 
purposes, I found the whole surface of the water one thick moving scum 
of Protococcus pluvialis—the red variety; the water beneath the scum 
was quite clear, and my friend told me the water had only been a few 
days exposed. On the 4th I was at Lucca, and spent a couple of days 
with my friends at the hospitable and beautifully-situated Villa Pisani, 
some four miles from the town of Lucca, and on the side of the San 
Concordio Mountain. In this pleasant spot, dear to me by many me- 
mories, I had from time to time collected with my friend, Mr. A. H. 
Haliday. All the species that I collected which he cared for were 
always given to him at once, with the exception of the Spiders; and of 
these captured by me from time to time in this locality, I subjoin a 
list, for which I am indebted to the goodness of my friend, John 
Blackwell, F. L.8., of Hendre House. Many of the species were col- 
lected in the olive-yards and vineyards about the Villa Pisani, many 
about the Valle Buja, more especially in the grounds of the Villa Sardi; 
some few were taken in the delightful pine forests that hug the seashore 
at Viarregio. It must not be overlooked that this collection was made 
chiefly in the summer time, and that I regard it as by no means giving 
a complete list of the spiders that belong to this district. For descriptions 
