964 The Progress of Arachnology in America, 
“Synopsis of Families and Genera,” which the author too mod- 
estly styles a “compilation.” The reason is obvious; and those 
who desire to stimulate the beginner must proceed with -i 
open, and bear the necessities of the case in mind. 
It has been customary in many groups to publish perioda 1 
check-lists, which may possibly serve some useful. purpose, but 
as a rule they are scarcely of a value equal to the labor bestowed 
upon them, since a little additional labor and a small increase of 
volume would make of a mere list of names a valuable index to 
the literature of an order and an outline of its known geographical 
distribution. | 
The literature pertaining to the American species of Arach 
nida, like that on most zoological groups, is exceedingly sa 
tered, and up to the present time no résumé has been p 
that will at once place the student in the possession of the always 
welcome information regarding the present status of the subject 
The first recorded observations on the spiders of the North 
American fauna were by Lewis Bosc and Thomas Abbot, neither 
of which reached publication. Bosc left manuscript notes, t q 
gether with colored drawings of twenty-five Carolina spiders, 
entitled “ Sur les Araignées de la Caroline.” The names of his 
species were published by Baron Walckenaer in 1805, but ut the 
descriptions did not appear until the publication of the 
two volumes of “Apteres,” in 1837. Thomas Abbot, bettet 
known by his work on the Lepidoptera, prepared an extensi® — 
series of illustrations of Georgian spiders, accompanied by ae i J 
script “ Notes and Observations on the Drawings of. the Spi 
of Georgia.” Knowledge of the date of preparation of 
series of drawings, as well as of its present place and_conditiet 
of preservation, is wanting, but it was in Lon 
1802, and was purchased by Baron Walckenaer in 1821: 
five hundred and thirty-five figures only three hundred desc 
classified with any certainty by Walckenaer, and the 
tions were published by him in his “ Aptere: es. targelh 
these species have been identified in recent times, owing . 
no doubt, to the fact that these southern tramping-g°0 
the pioneers of American entomology have never be 
by recent investigators. As many of the species are a 
color, which among spiders is exceedingly variable, rather 
on more constant structural characters, there are 
