THE. AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 333 
billy-can and then liberated in the cages. The Geckos stalked 
the woodlice with great deliberation, often seeming to delay 
catching them just to watch them walk around, as a cat would 
a mouse. Attempts to breed the woodlice for food were only 
partly successful, ‘and most of the ones fed to the Geckos were 
got by turning over stones in the day time or with a lantern 
and: billy-can at night. 
The Geckos hibernate during the coldest weather, and in 
one particularly cold winter about half’ a dozen of those kept 
in captivity perished. Though the majority hibernate there 
are always a few which'do not seem to do:so, both of those kept 
in cages and of those observed on the walls. 
THE ORCHARD TREE SPIDER CALAENIA 
EXCAVATA. 
The following interesting account of this spider is com- 
piled from notes of observations sent in by Mr. W. A. Oakley, 
of Bondi, and read at the meeting in February last. The 
spider was identified by Mr. Froggatt. When I first noticea this 
spider, some twelve months since, it was about an eighth of an 
inch across the abdomen and was located on a leaf of a Christ- 
mas bush in my bush-house. It was always in the same spot 
and never seemed to move. Under a magnifying glass it re- 
sembled a crab with its legs folded across the thorax. The 
legs are white and black and the abdomen pure creamy white 
with black markings. After watching it daily for six months I 
took a light and examined it at night, when I found it hang- 
ing beneath the leaf by one leg to a fine web, and moving - 
about the other legs as if exercising. On the part of the leaf 
where the spider had been sitting there was a closely woven 
mat of silver looking web. Next day the spider was back on 
the same spot just as I had seen it for months. — 
On going into the bush-house next night I found it hang- 
ing, swinging its legs as before. For weeks I observed it by 
day on top of the leaf and at night beneath, but could never 
see it feeding. 
"The plant started to grow in the Spring of this year, 
and I planted it out in the garden, near a small pepper tree, 
and still being interested in this spider, I lost sight of it for 
several days, and thought a bird must have had it, but later I 
discovered it had removed its abode on to a leaf of the pepper 
