PREFACE. 



The first idea of the jiresent work embraced merely a list of 

 the Spidors of Dorsetshire, compiled from notes and observations 

 during the last twenty years, and including simply the time and 

 locality of capture. On second thoughts such a bare list 

 appeared to be rather too formal and uninteresting, and not 

 likely to be very useful ; it therefore gradually expanded until, 

 before the task had been proceeded with very far, it was 

 determined to give some of the loading characters of each 

 spider, so that the list might form a kind of handbook from 

 which a collector or student of spiders might be able to 

 identify most of those met with in the county. As th e 

 work has gone on it has been found advisable to make the 

 descriptions, especially where the species are nearly allied to 

 each other, rather fuller, and perhaps a little more formal. 

 This modification in the plan of the work will account for the 

 earlier descriptions being often less full, and less precise than the 

 later ones. A further modification was determined upon when 

 it was ascertained that the spiders found in Dorsetshire included 

 upwards of two-thirds of those as yet known to be British. It 

 was thought then that by the addition of a not very extensive 

 appendix, those spidors not yet found in Dorsetshire, but many 

 of which will doubtless some day be met with there, might be 

 included in a supplemental list, with a short diagnosis of each 

 species. The present monograph, therefore, will includo all the 

 known British spiders ; and will, it is hoped, materially assist future 

 collectors in the determination of any now additions they may 

 make to our County List ; the more especially as, at present, 

 thero is no work in which all our known British spiders are 

 included. The large folio volume of Mr. Blackwall, published 

 in 1861-4, records 304 species ; the present work already includes 



