32 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
indicate the species, and these placed in small paper trays (see Fig. 19), 
bound in by two India rubber bands slipped over the box. These trays 
are placed upon end inside of my cabinet boxes, and the name 
Preserv- of the species marked distinctly on the top. Any other notes 
pa ebiy eel as to date, locality, etc., can be jotted upon the back or on the 
inside of the tray. The trays may be readily stored in boxes 
with stiff pasteboard or wooden partitions, according to the width of the 
tray, and the whole kept in a small cabinet. (Fig. 20.) A quite small 
cabinet will suffice to contain all the species of any neighborhood. 
A stout umbrella is a very important implement in collecting. The 
open umbrella should be placed (handle upwards) underneath the bushes, 
and these beaten in the ordinary way. -When the umbrella is lifted aside, 
there will be found numbers of insects of various kinds, along with bits 
of leaves, twigs, etc., and more or 
fewer spiders of various sorts. These 
can readily be taken in boxes or in 
the collecting bottle. I have often 
found advantage in holding the um- 
brella off a little distance and inyert- 
ing it slowly. The rubbish will drop 
on the ground and the spiders will 
also fall, but hold on to the little 
dropline which they instinctively 
throw out when falling. The bottle 
can then be rapidly placed beneath 
these swinging individuals, who are 
thus secured. The ordinary ento- 
mologist’s bag may also be used for sweeping the grasses and hedge rows. 
Many species will be found by sifting the fallen leaves and other rubbish 
of the woods and fields, within which they hide. Others will be found 
underneath the bark of old trees and fallen logs. 
A cupping glass and a card usually answer for collecting large ground 
spiders. I have taken the great tarantula of Texas in this way, watching 
my opportunity to slip the glass over the animal. The card is 
then gradually introduced between the glass and the ground, 
and the spider can thus be lifted up in the hand. A small vial 
of chloroform or ether for such purposes may be carried in the satchel. 
A pellet of cotton, moistened in either of these drugs, if slipped under- 
neath the card within the cupping glass, will soon overcome the animal, 
which may then be dropped without inconyenience into the alcohol. 
I have never had any hesitation in handling our indigenous spiders in 
order to collect them, though, of course, I should not care to lay hands 
on a tarantula, and am careful with our largest species of Lycosids. But 
there are few spiders, perhaps there are none, in our Northern and “Mid- 
= 
Fig. 20. A collector’s cabinet. 
Ground 
Spiders. 
