THE PATIENT SPIDER.
In another article, Edward mentions the fact of a Spider (Aranea domestica) having lived in one of his sealed-up cases for twelve months without food. He had before written to his reverend friend on the subject, but Mr. Smith informed him that he had no books on Entomology, and could give him no information. Edward says of his spider, that after the case had been sealed up, he saw him walking over the birds contained there, until at last he became stationary in one of the corners. “Towards noon of the second day of his incarceration, he commenced operations, and by breakfast time of the day following, his web was completed. The little artizan was then observed to walk slowly and very sedately all over the newly formed fabric, seemingly with the view of ascertaining if all was secure. This done, the aperture was next examined, and with more apparent care than was bestowed upon the rest of the structure. This wonderful mechanical contrivance,—which serves at least the fourfold purpose of storehouse, banqueting hall, watch tower, and asylum in times of danger,—being found all right, the artificer then took up his station, within it, no doubt to await the success of the net which he had spread, and from whence, had fortune proved kind, he would boldly have rushed out to secure his struggling prey. There was, however, no fly to be caught within the case. He was the only living thing in it; and there the patient creature remained without food, for the space of more than twelve months.”[39]
NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY.
The notices on Natural History which appeared from time to time in the local journal, had the effect of directing general attention to the observation of natural objects; and numerous birds, fishes, insects, caterpillars, shells, and plants, were sent to Edward for examination.
In one of his notes he mentions a Cinereous Shearwater (Puffinus cinereus) found on the beach near Portsoy. This led him to give a very vivid account of the Stormy Petrel. Another of the specimens sent to him was a Dyphalcanthus longispinus, from the fossil diggings of Gamrie. “How strange!” he says. “Here we have an animal, or perhaps I should rather say a stone, part of which had once been a creature enjoying life,—but now how changed! How long is it since it lived, died, and became thus transformed? Years ago, nay ages, many ages, long anterior to the creation of man. How wonderful, and yet how true!”
Of another specimen he says—
“Here, again, is a black, pink, yellow, and brown creature, with crests and ornaments like a duchess—just, in fact, like a lady of the olden time, dressed up and decorated for a ball, with her head stuck full of feathers, her ribbons flying, and fan in hand; in other words, a caterpillar of the Vapourer Moth found in a garden at Buckie.
“And lastly, though not least, a specimen of the Mountain Bladder fern (Cystopteris montana), found on Benrinnes by a gentleman from England, and sent to me as a rarity. It was only in 1836 that this fern was made known as British, having then been for the first time met with by a party of naturalists on Ben Lawers. Since that time, however, it has been found in a ravine between Glen Dochart and Glen Lochy, Perthshire. It is also found on the mountains of North Wales, on the Alps, and on the Rocky Mountains of North America.”
RARE BIRDS.