Arachnida. 



8047 



there are not so many new forms to be discovered in Scotland as 

 I had imagined. It must be acknowledged that the time of my tour 

 was not the most likely time to meet with adult specimens of many 

 species, particularly in the genera Thomisus and Salticus ; and from 

 the time of our leaving Edinburgh the weather was for the most part 

 wretchedly wet and cold, scarcely one completely fine day ; so that I 

 could not extend my search, either as to time or distance, as I had 

 intended. Still no doubt there are many more species to be added 

 to the Scotch list than those I met with, and perhaps a search about 

 the end of May and beginning of June would, in warm sheltered 

 spots, produce many adults of species I did not come across at all. 

 The autumn, too, if fine, is about the most prolific season in numbers, 

 and many species are not adult till then. I had expected to meet 

 with more examples of the genus Salticus, the rocky and heathy 

 ground being just such as they delight in, but, as the list subjoined 

 will show, I only captured two species. Dr. Leach (in the Supple- 

 ment to the fifth and sixth editions of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' 

 article " Annulosa") records that the curious ant-like spider, Salticus 

 formicarius, is found, though rarely, in Scotland. This is a species I 

 have never seen, and much wished to meet with, but I had no clew to 

 its locality. 



I trust this slight sketch and list of Scotch spiders will induce some 

 naturalists resident in Scotland to collect and study the order regu- 

 larly, for it is only by residents working constantly and thoroughly 

 their own localities, however circumscribed, that the species of a dis- 

 trict will ever be known. In a flying tour, if weather and every other 

 contingency fall out in one's favour, one may do a great deal ; but in 

 nine cases out of ten these fall out the other way. And then, again, 

 with no special locality in view to work thoroughly, the desultory 

 mode of operations necessitated by being often on the move, though 

 a very pleasant and enjoyable way of working, is certainly far from 

 the best for scientific purposes. That a large area is not required in 

 all cases to ascertain the general spider-produce of a district, may be 

 concluded from the fact that in one day last May, on Bloxworth 

 Heath, Dorset, in company with Mr. Tuffen West (now engaged in 

 illustrating Mr. Blackwall's work on British spiders), I captured up- 

 wards of forty species in a piece of heathy ridge not more than four 

 feet square ; and among these were one species new to Science, and 

 another up to that time unrecorded as British. Such fertile spots are 

 only to be found by knowing thoroughly all the ins and outs of a dis- 

 trict, in a way that no one but a resident can ascertain them. In the 



