Arachnida. 



S041 



of a snake incubating her eggs at first took most persons by surprise, 

 but the evidence in its favour appears to be very strong. My notice 

 of the main facts of this case has extended to a greater length than I 

 proposed, but I shall be very glad if what I have written should 

 enable your readers to understand the grounds for believing that 

 incubation is not altogether unknown among serpents. 



E. W. H. HOLDSWORTH. 



Sketch of an Arachnological Tour in Scotland in 1861 ; with a List 

 of Scotch Spiders. By the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, M.A. 



There are probably few persons who have not read of the feelings 

 with which naturalists have before now entered on the search of a 

 district of virgin ground, — the treasures, the rarities, the new forms 

 that have flitted before their imaginations ; the eagerness, the joy at 

 each unknown acquisition. Some of us may have felt this even in 

 our own now well-worked country ; and I must confess that it was 

 with anticipations and feelings somewhat akin to these that on the 

 22nd of June, 1861, I set forth on foot from Edinburgh for the first 

 day of a month's tour, undertaken chiefly for the purpose of arachno- 

 logising in Scotland. Scottish ground (in re spiders) was, as far as I 

 knew, virgin ground ; no one, to my knowledge, had ever made any 

 researches in Scotch Arachnology, except Mr. Hardy, of Penman- 

 shiels, in Berwickshire ; his labours are recorded in different parts of 

 Mr. Blackwall's work on British spiders (now being published by the 

 Ray Society) ; and, as far as I have understood, Mr. Hardy's re- 

 searches did not extend north of Berwickshire. The ground I pro- 

 posed]to"search was just such wild, heathy, rocky districts as in the 

 South of England I had found so abundant both in number of species 

 and individuals ; and being so far removed in latitude, I confidently 

 looked forward to turn up many new and perhaps singular forms, and 

 to swell considerably the list of our native spiders. My anticipations 

 of these untold rarities were, however, destined to be in great measure 

 disappointed, as the slight sketch I now propose to make of my 

 month's doings will show. 



My first three days were occupied in turning over the loose stones, 

 and searching at the roots of grass and other herbage on Arthur's Seat. 

 Here the ground appeared in every respect most favourable for spider- 

 life, and, except one day, the weather was fine and warm ; but while, 

 VOL. XX. 2 F 



