464 
CULLODEN. 
Mr. Hill informs me, are the feeble notices of a verj 
special instinct. 
The creature itself, an insect of much beauty, fell 
under my own observation. It was at Culloden, an 
estate near Bluefields, the undulating and down-like 
pastures of which are thickly studded with palm-trees, 
chiefly of the Fan-thatch {Borassus Jlahelliformis ?), 
and the bristling Ebby-palm {Acrocomia sclerocarpa). 
Immense clumps of Prickly-pear have spread them- 
selves over the rocky surface, and among the oval 
nodes of these were placed many irregular, perpen- 
dicular nets, geometric towards the middle. The 
very centre of each web was occupied by an elegant 
Spider, hanging head downward, the upper part of 
whose body was of a glistening satiny or silvery 
whiteness, the belly yellow spotted with black, and 
the legs marked with alternate rings of the same 
contrasting hues. It was the Epeira argentata of 
Fabricius, or a species closely allied to it. The 
interesting peculiarities detailed in the following 
communication from my friend, escaped my own 
observation, in my eagerness to secure the specimens, 
of which I took three. The season was May, but 
Mr. Hill’s facts were observed in January. 
In a garden passage bordered with a hedge of 
the TripJiasia {Limonia trifoliata of Linnmus), a 
spider’s web had attracted my attention in consequence 
of its containing in the centre a thick tissue of zig-zag 
lacings, which gave it the appearance of being orna- 
mented with a Saltier cross. On examining what 
there was peculiar in the Spider to lead to the 
peculiarity in the web, a little observation rendered 
