G.C. Gaddum
There is probably no insect school children know better than a spider; there is possibly no insect they know less about. Mr. G.C. Gaddum, who is in charge of the museum at Eton College and is to give his first broadcast talk this afternoon, has made a special study of them, and is to tell his listeners some of the things he has found out.
They will be surprised to learn how many different kinds of spiders there are in the British Isles. If they read this note before the talk, let them give a guess and write down the figure. Mr. Gaddum will tell them the right one, and they will see how far they are out. They will learn the name of the spider with the little white dots on its back in the shape of a cross, and the name of the spider that bears its eggs behind it in a ball of thread and, as soon as they are hatched, carries its babies on its back. They will learn how the spider goes a-fishing, and how clever its instinct makes it when it catches a 'fish' that may prove too much for it. But Mr. Gaddum will show that, in spite of its marvellous instinct, the spider is not really intelligent at all.