790 Miarvels of the Universe 
funnel running downwards, in which the Spider waits and watches. Such webs may be found in 
abundance on heaths and along hedgebanks in autumn. In some other species, easily to be seen if 
we are resting on a bank in uncultivated places and casting our glances over the ground, there is a 
silken tube only, constructed between small clods, which, of course, serves no purpose in catching 
prey, but only as a retreat from which the Spider lying hidden can pounce out upon any insect 
so luckless as to pass by its open end. Tunnels of similar character will be found in the mortar of 
old walls in which a rough hole may have been found by the Spider, which she carefully lines 
with a silken tube to make more comfortable as a retreat. 
Photo by] LW. Saville Kent. 
A WAYSIDE WEB. 
Webs of not very symmetrical form may be found spun on hedgerows, shrubs, and other plants. Although they suggest a 
stage in the evolution of the geometrical web, the rays are loose and irregular, and lack the spiral line. 
EX WOCSIUBIS Ole JENS Ist ILMB 
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. 
THE Sail-bearer is a most remarkable fish ; it is also a most exasperating fish. The merest glance 
at its outlines challenges curiosity as to what its mode of life may be, what the need of its enormous 
fins—larger in proportion to the body than those of any other living fishes. Yet so far this creature 
has succeeded in evading all our efforts to discover its life-history. It is without a history, and 
without a name in common speech. So far all that can be said of it is that it is a ‘“‘ pelagic” fish; 
that is to say, it haunts that great wilderness of waters known as the open ocean, and lives near 
its surface, swimming, it is said, not vertically as one would suppose, but obliquely ; that is to say, 
with the body inclining to one side witha “ heel,” so to speak. But whether this ‘“‘ heel ” is always 
on the same side, and always the same in all individuals, there are no records to show. But even so, 
why the “ heel” ? Has the development of these fins overstepped the mark, so to speak ? Do they 
play the part of the “ Tail that Wagged the Dog ”’ ? 
This excessive development of the dorsal and anal fins, as these great sails of the back and 
