Arachnicla of Epping Forest. 
47 
in small pill-boxes ; a drop of chloroform stupefies them, and 
they can then be examined, and rejected if not wanted, or at 
once placed in the spirit phial, if required for the collection ; 
but the most convenient method of capturing a spider is to 
place over it an empty test-tube (one of \ to f- of an inch in 
diameter and 3 in. long is a good general size for most 
British species); the spider instantly runs up the tube (or 
maybe made to do so), the fore-finger then closes the mouth 
temporarily, and on the inversion of the tube over the open 
mouth of the spirit phial, the spider drops down at once, and 
the matter is ended. Ordinary methylated spirit is the best 
fluid for both killing and preserving spiders ; but for the 
latter purpose (as the spirit is usually about fifty or sixty 
degrees above proof) it should be diluted with about one-fifth 
or one-sixth part of distilled water, otherwise it is apt, after 
a time, to corrugate the integument of small and delicate 
spiders. 
“ Those spiders which are found running or jumping about 
on the ground, or on walls or trunks of trees, can easily be 
caught thus, by means of a test-tube, with very little prac¬ 
tice ; for others, which frequent low herbage, a ‘ sweeping- 
net’ (such as those used by entomologists) must be employed ; 
and for those which live on bushes or boughs of trees, there 
is nothing better than a very large umbrella, into which the 
boughs may be beaten ; and, whether in the net or umbrella, 
the pill-box or tube will have to be employed for the transfer 
of the spiders to the spirit bottle. When the day’s collecting 
is done the contents of this bottle must be sorted into tubes 
of different sizes, according to their genera and species. 
This can most conveniently be done by turning out the whole 
contents of the bottle into the cover of a potted-meat pot, or 
into a saucer. The spiders should then be separated and 
placed in the tubes by means of a pair of very fine-pointed 
and elastic forceps, each spider being taken up by a single leg; 
the tube is then filled up with clean spirit, a pledget of 
cotton-wool is placed firmly in its mouth with the forceps, 
together with a small parchment label, on which (if the label 
be large enough) the name of the spider is written; or else a 
number is inserted in figures, referring to a note-book 
wherein notes of locality or habits, &c., are written. The 
tube thus filled and stopped is then placed, in an inverted 
position, in a larger, wide-mouthed bottle, capable of holding 
several species, or perhaps a whole genus ; this wide-mouthed 
bottle is partly filled with spirit, corked, or stopped with a 
glass stopper, and has a large label outside, on which the 
name of the genus and species, or perhaps merely the 
