xxxviii INTRODUCTION, 
and all ferved either to fill up a place in my 
cabinet, or as objects of ftudy. At the houfe 
of Boers too there was a kind of menagerie 
to which I frequently reforted, in order to 
make obfervations and fometimes experi- 
ments. 
It was by means of this menagerie, added 
to what my two journeys had enabled me to 
obferve, that I fucceeded in obtaining a know- 
ledge of the food, propenfities, habits, and 
duration of life, more or lefs protraded,of cer- 
tain animals. Some of thefe obfervations, 
which" are highly worthy the attention of na- 
turalifts, I fhall piiblifli hereafter. At pre- 
fent, I mean to confine myfelf to a fmgle ex- 
periment, which, not falling in with the 
thread of my narration, would be confidered 
as foreign to it, and confequently can here 
only be inferted with propriety. 
. I had often remarked that fpiders fpread 
iheir 
