INTRODUCTION. xli. 



sufficient spirit is poured in to immerse the spider, and the cover 

 is put on. In a fortnight or so the action of the spirit will, if it 

 be pretty strong, have stiffened the specimen, which must then 

 be placed carefully in a tube sufficiently largo to receive it with, 

 out too much compression of the logs ; a small strip of white 

 card should bo slipped in behind it, the tube bo filled with spirit 

 and corked (or, better still, stoppod with a pledget of cotton 

 wool) and inverted in a larger bottle, as recommended above. 

 The spider's namo may also be written on paper or parchment, 

 and insorted in tho tube. Preparod this way, and ranged on 

 narrow shelves, tho spiders may be seen without removing the 

 tubes from the bottles, and prosent a very neat and sightly 

 appearance even to the most indifferent observer. 



Where to Look for Spiders. 



The places in which spiders aro to be found may be gathered 

 from the numerous references to localities and habitat in the 

 following pages. It need only, thereforo, bo remarked here that 

 no situation, wet or dry, high or low, should be left unsearched. 

 In the winter and spring months moss and dobris of all kinds, 

 such as heaps of grass, cut rushes, fern, dead leaves, brush-wood, 

 and decaying faggots, should bo carefully searched, shaking out 

 thoso various materials upon a nowspapor, when many a rare 

 species of Neriene or Walclccnaera, as well as some kinds of 

 Drassidcs and others, soldom met with elsewhere, will be found. 

 As spring advances and summer comes on, spiders, as a rule, 

 leave their winter haunts and got up upon tho bushes and trees, 

 and among rushes, grass, and other horbago of all kinds, when tho 

 sweeping net and umbrella, as above recommended, will come 

 into requisition. At all times of tho year spiders conceal them- 

 selves under stones, logs of wood, old bark, ivy stems, and other such 

 shelter ; while many species, especially tho adult males, may be 

 found running upon tho surface of tho ground, disporting them- 

 solves on walls, troo trunks, posts, and rails, or running on the 

 uppermost bar of iron fencing. Old buildings, collars, and 



