| ZOOLOGICAL RAMBLES IN THE TRANSVAAL. 251 
pineapples can be grown, but the peaches are very inferior. Few 
flowering plants were to be seen, as the season was too far 
advanced; ferns were abundant in number and species, and 
many terrestrial orchids were to be found. 
Some very interesting Spiders are common to this locality. 
When in Pretoria, my friend Dr. Rendall sent me two specimens of 
a fine ‘‘ Mygale”’ (Harpactira gigas),* with the following notes :— 
(1) “Captured under a large stone, and put in a box with a Frog, 
which it promptly attacked and bit. The Frog died very soon 
afterwards. There was no combat so far as the Frog was con- 
cerned, only fright. (2) I have obtained another ‘ Mygale,’ and 
some day or two after it had been killed it fell on the ground, and 
was promptly pounced upon by a half-grown cat, which ate a 
portion of the body, and then turned deathly sick, staggered 
about, lay down on its side panting, and seemed about to die ; 
but, after thus fruitlessly arousing our compassion, recovered 
after some hours.” This was probably caused by the hairs 
attached to the body of the Spider. Bates, giving his experience 
on the Amazons of a species, Mygale avicularia, writes :—‘‘ The 
hairs with which they are clothed come off when touched, and 
cause a peculiar and almost maddening irritation. The first 
specimen that I killed and prepared was handled incautiously, and 
| I suffered terribly for three days afterwards.” The total length 
| of this formidable creature of Barberton is forty millimetres. 
Another somewhat small but social Spider, Stegodyphus 
| gregarius, is not uncommon either at Barberton or Pretoria. Its 
presence is denoted by its large irregularly shaped nest affixed to 
the twigs of some thorn bush, where it is liable to create a 
momentary impression that one is looking at some unknown 
| lepidopteral construction. The size of the nest is clearly variable. 
| The Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, in describing the species, wrotet : 
—‘A nest of this Spider, containing numerous live individuals 
| of both sexes, some adult, some immature, was sent a short 
time ago by Col. Bowker from Durban to Lord Walsingham, 
| who, kindly acting on my suggestion, sent the whole to this 
* A new speties just described by Mr. Pocock (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 
| Ser. 7, vol. i. p. 316). The same author has in these pages recently described 
stridulation in these Arachnids (ante, p. 14). 
+ Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1889, p. 44. 
