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RED SPIDER. 
out the greater part of the world ; and two of 
them frequent the shores of Britain. 
The common redshank, Zotanus catidris, in- 
habits many parts of Britain throughout the year, 
but frequents the coast in flocks during winter, 
and the fens and marshes adjacent to lakes and 
streams singly or in pairs during spring. It 
feeds on aquatic insects and worms, and probes 
for them in mud and silt. Its extreme length is 
about 11 inches; but is greater in the female 
than in the male. In winter, the upper part of 
its body is ashy brown, and the breast, the belly, 
the front of the neck, and the stump and tail 
feathers are white, with a few slight dusky 
streaks in the line of the shaft of the feathers ; 
and in spring, the under part of the body, the 
sides, the flanks, and the front of the neck are 
streaked and spotted with brownish black. It 
builds its nest with coarse grass in the fens, and 
begins to lay early in May; and its eggs have a 
pale reddish white colour, tinged with green, and 
blotched with dark red brown. 
The spotted redshank, Totanus fuscus, is a 
great deal rarer than the common species, yet is 
sent not unplentifully to the London market in 
autumn and winter. Its total length is about 
123 inches. Its bill is straight and moderately 
long ; its plumage is ashy on the back, grey on 
the breast, and pure white on the belly at one 
season, but changes to a sooty black at another ; 
and its legs and toes have a vermillion red colour, 
and its wings white spots, throughout the year. 
RED SPIDER,—scientifically Acarus Telarius. 
A plant-infesting mite,—a minute microscopic 
animal, of the holetra family of spiders. It be- 
longs to a prodigiously multitudinous genus, 
| which infest a large proportion of the organic 
tribes of our world, in both their living and their 
dead states, and many of which are parasites, and 
have an intimate connexion with some of the 
most loathsome cutaneous diseases of mammals. 
All the acari or mites are oviparous and amazingly 
prolific. 
The red spider or common plant mite is a 
great and general destroyer among the tender 
and half-tender exotics of the garden, and vies 
with the aphides in giving work and vexation to 
gardeners, and, not only has a prodigious fe- 
cundity, but multiplies almost equally at all 
seasons of the year. The eggs are generally de- 
posited on the back of leaves, where they are 
best sheltered from strong light; and they are 
very minute, and of a whitish colour, and not 
collected in masses, but scattered loosely and 
dispersedly all over the surface. The young 
ones, soon after being hatched, begin to move 
about upon the leaves. They are at first colour- 
less, and remarkably small, but of the same form 
as the parents ; and as they advance in growth, 
they become more and more red; and when 
they are half-grown, they become very active ; 
and when they attain maturity, they are dark 
brown and slightly hairy. During the progress 
REDSTART. 
of their growth, they several times cast their 
skins ; but they do not undergo any other appa- 
rent change except increase of size and darken- 
ing of colour, They weave for themselves close 
silken webs; and they travel by means of these 
from one leaf to another; and the young are also 
sheltered by them from the sickening or killing 
effects of ordinary moisture. Both the middle- 
aged and the full-grown animals are so very mi- 
nute, that, except when viewed through a micro- 
scope, they appear on the leaves like mere red 
moving dots. 
Many means have been proposed of destroying 
the red spider or of preventing its appearance. 
One of the simplest and most efficacious, at any 
season of the year or in any condition of the 
plant-house in which it can be applied without 
injury to the plants, is excessive humidity; and 
a kindred one, which can often be applied at 
other seasons and other conditions, is daily 
syringing with clear water. Another is to bruise 
laurel leaves beneath the infested plants, so as 
to kill the spider with their liberated, aeriform, 
essential oil; but this amounts to the diffusion 
of prussic acid through the local atmosphere, 
and is dangerous to man. Most of the other re- 
medies derive their efficacy from sulphur, applied 
in many forms and in many combinations, either 
aeriformly or liquidly or as a wash upon flues or | 
walls; and one of the oldest-fashioned or most 
extensively employed of these may be selected as 
a good enough coarse specimen of all the rest :— 
“Take half a pound of flower of sulphur ; put it 
into a watering pot, and add as much water as will 
make it into a paste; afterwards add more, until 
sufficiently thin ; pour it into a garden engine 
or other vessel capable of holding 4 or 5 gallons; 
then add as much water as will make it into 4 
gallons ; and water the infested plants with this 
overhead, and repeat the application till every 
insect disappears.” 
Two facts respecting the red spider are re- 
markable,—that it is thought by some intelligent 
observers to be rather useful than injurious to 
plants, and that another and certainly harmless 
species of acarus is often mistaken for it. The 
way in which it is supposed to be useful is by its 
destroying the Coccus hesperidum or brown scale, 
and sometimes also different species of aphides; | 
and the acarus which is mistaken for it is A. 
holosericeus, or the scarlet spider, which is much 
larger than the red spider, and lives solitarily, 
and does not form any web, or fix on any parti- 
cular plant or leaf for its residence. 
REDSTART. Two British song-birds, of the 
warbler family of passerine. 
The common redstart, Phenicurus niticulla, 
Sylvia phenicurus, or Motacilla phenicurus, ar- 
rives in the southern counties of England about 
the second week of April, and proceeds thence 
toward the west and the north. It is rare in 
some places, and not very plentiful in any. Its 
total length is 5; inches. The head, back. and 
