DECEMBER IN NEW ZEALAND. 167 
of paralyzed spiders, five or seven are in each cell ; they are 
apparently injected with some antiseptic liquid, as they keep for 
many weeks. This arrangement I have seen described by one 
naturalist as “ a beautiful provision of Nature” ; by another, as 
“ the most cold-blooded and revolting cruelty ” ; perhaps it may 
be both. When the egg hatches in the cell, the grub devours 
the ill-starred spiders one by one, until of an age to emerge. 
Though much less often seen, there is another insect of 
somewhat similar habits on the run ; it digs a pit in the loose 
bush mould, captures its prey, and before burying it lays an egg 
in the body of the victim ; the grave is then covered in. The 
spiders used by the mason fly are very beautiful, elaborately 
marked with silver and gold. The winged insect itself lives on 
the more innocent diet of nectar of flowers. There are many 
other spiders on the run ; perhaps the trapdoor spider is one of 
the most interesting, and the sudden closing of their lids has the 
effect of appearing to make the dry earth wink. These creatures 
have two exits from their Y-shaped homes, and when some 
insect or beetle tumbles down the hole, they wait at the junction 
of these two passages ; thus they have a choice of seizing their 
prey from behind, or if it seems too formidable of escaping. 
The “ death tick,” as a flat browish-black spider is called, has 
the curious habit of making a ticking sound like a watch, or 
more exactly like the last dying rings of a spun coin before it 
altogether ceases to revolve. These “death ticks” may be 
oftenest heard at night and when the house is still ; noticed for 
the first time, the noise is very remarkable. Another large 
spider, who stretches his nets in the bracken about this season, 
has assimilated the exact fluffy brown of the uncurling fronds. 
There are very minute species, too, that float on threads of 
gossamer, and others that in late autumn build a nest within a 
nest, depositing their eggs within an inner covering of spider 
silk. I was told only a few days ago of a red water spider that 
preys upon young trout ; the fish were seized, I was informed, 
when in the hatching boxes, and during a very early stage of 
their existence. About 5,000 ova were hatched on the run this, 
spring, and in nearly all the rivers of New Zealand, trout have 
been turned out. In some rivers, and especially at the river 
mouths, baskets of eight, ten, or twelve fish may be obtained, 
the average weight perhaps eight lbs. In other streams fish 
are more numerous and smaller ; the great lakes are also full of 
trout, but, though they may be seen swimming in enormous 
shoals, they scorn any lure that has yet been tried. For stripp- 
ing purposes fish have been taken up to thirty lbs. Indeed, the 
trouting in New Zealand nowadays is alone worth the trip from 
home. The fish are comparatively unsophisticated, too, and the 
wild scenery up the streams not to be surpassed. 
Tutira Lake, Hawkes Bay, N .Z. H. Guthrie-Smith. 
