from the venom of the spider-a circumstance to which Shakspeare very happily alludes in his Winter's Tale: 'There may be in the cup The abhorred ingredient to his eye, make known BIRD-CATCHING SPIDERS. That some spiders of great size occasionally prey on very small birds, was first ascertained by Madame Merian, and announced to the world in her work on the Insects of Surinam, published in 1705. In this work she gives a circumstantial account of the manner in which the spider seizes its prey, and a figure of a spider preying on a young humming-bird, which it seems to have taken out of its nest. As for a very long time, however, Madame Merian's statements were not confirmed by any other observer, they began to be very generally discredited; but their accuracy has now been placed beyond dispute, and some of the great spiders of the West Indies are known to prey occasionally on young humming-birds and treecreepers, which they seize in their nests, chiefly during the night. It is probable that some of the largest spiders of other tropical countries have similar habits; and although Sir James Emerson Tennent tells us that he failed to obtain any evidence of the truth of the stories current as to the Mygale fasciata of Ceylon-a spider which, with its legs extended, covers an ordinary breakfast-plate-catching and killing birds, and is satisfied that (unless in the possible case of acute suffering from hunger) this creature shuns all descriptions of food except soft insects and annelides, yet he adds, that he was told by a lady that she saw a little house-lizard, a gecko, seized and devoured by one of these ugly spiders. Bird-catching spiders belong mostly to the genus Mygale, none of the species of which form webs to entrap their prey, but construct a tube, which serves as their habitation, and in which they lie in wait for such animals as may come within their Bird-catcher. reach. The bird-catcher (M. avicularia) is the most gigantic and powerful of the genus, measuring above three inches from the snout to the extremity of the abdomen, and said to be capable of extending with its feet a space of eight or ten inches. Its body is covered with a brownish down; its legs, which are as thick as a goose-quill, are closely covered with hair, and armed with claws as sharp and strong as those of some rapacious birds. It is not uncommon in South America, particularly in the tropical forests, where it fixes its tube in rents and crevices of trees, and preys on large insects, beetles, and young birds. The web with which the bird-catcher lines its den is white, of a very fine texture, and semitransparent, like muslin. It would seem, however, that all the bird-catching mygales are not lurkers, but that some are active hunters; for Latreille, speaking of a species found in the West Indies, says: 'It chases far and wide in search of its prey, and conceals itself beneath leaves for the purpose of surprising it; and it will climb the branches of trees to devour the young of the humming-bird. When,' continues he, 'it throws itself upon its prey, it clings to the body by means of the double hooks which terminate its tarsi, and it then strives to reach the hinder part of the head, that it may insert its fangs between the skull and the first of the cervical vertebræ. The muscular strength of this spider is very great; and it is with difficulty made to let go what it seizes, even when the surface scarcely presents a hold for the claws with which the tarsi are armed, or for the powerful fangs which assist them to kill birds and lizards. Its obstinacy and ferocity in fighting end only with its life.' We believe this is the same species to which Dampier alludes when, speaking of Campeachy, he says: 'There is a sort of spiders of a prodigious size, some nearly as big as a man's fist, with long small legs, like the spiders of England. They have two fangs, each an inch and a half long, and of a proportionable thickness, which are black as jet, smooth as glass, and, at their small end, as sharp as a thorn; these are not straight, but bending. Some persons wear them in their tobacco-pouches to pick their pipes with; others preserve them for toothpicks, especially such as are troubled with toothache, for, if report may be trusted, they will expel that pain. The backs of these spiders are covered with a dark-yellowish down, as soft as velvet. Some say they are venomous, and others that they are not; but which of these accounts is to be credited, I cannot determine.' Besides the bird-catchers belonging to the genus Mygale, it would appear that other spiders, whose webs are sufficiently strong to entangle small birds, are in the habit of feasting on such prey. Thus, in 1668, a gentleman resident in Bermudas writes to his friend in England: 'Here are spiders that spin their webs betwixt trees standing seven or eight fathoms asunder; and they do their work by spirting their web into the air, where the wind carries it from tree to tree. This web when finished will snare a bird as big as a thrush. Yourself may prove it, for I have sent you some.' The spider here spoken of is evidently not a Mygale, but an Epeira, and the same to which Rochefort alludes in his Natural History of the Antilles, when he says: "They spin webs so strong, that the little birds, when entangled therein, have much difficulty in extricating themselves.' Another writer, Percival, in his account of Ceylon, remarks: 'There is an immense spider found here, with legs not less than four inches long, and having the body covered with thick black hair. The webs which it makes are strong enough to entangle and hold even small birds, which form its usual prey.' More recently (1840), Mr M'Leay saw at Elizabeth Bay, near Sydney, 'a young bird suspended on the geometrical web of an enormous spider, which belongs to the same section as the European Epeira diadema. It was, when observed, already half eaten, and the spider was in the act of sucking its juices.' MINING AND MASON SPIDERS. These names are given to certain species of Mygale which burrow in the ground, and construct for themselves curious halls and galleries. They are found chiefly in South America and the West Indies, though some are natives of Southern Europe. M. cœmentaria constructs, in dry shelving situations exposed to the sun, a subterranean cylindrical gallery, often two feet deep, and extremely tortuous in its descent. This it lines with a tube of web, forming at its entrance a movable lid, composed of web and earth, attached to the lining by a kind of hinge; and this is adapted, by its size, situation, and weight, to close the opening so precisely as scarcely to allow its entrance to be distinguished from the neighbouring soil. When the spider enters its retreat, or passes out of it, the door shuts itself. Mr Rennie thus describes the nest of a West Indian mason spider (M. cratiens), which was presented to him by a friend: The nest is composed of very hard argillaceous earth, deeply tinged with brown oxide of iron. It is in the form of a tube, about one inch in diameter, between six and seven inches long, and slightly bent towards the lower extremity—appearing to have been rimed into the clay rather than built. The interior of the tube is lined with a uniform tapestry of silken web, of an orange-white colour, with a texture intermediate between India-paper and very Mygale fodiens. fine glove-leather. But the most wonderful part of this nest is its entrance, which we look upon as the perfection of insect architecture. A circular door, about the size of a crown-piece, slightly concave on the outside and convex within, is formed of more than a dozen layers of the same web which lines the interior, closely laid upon one another, and shaped so that the inner layers are the broadest, the outer being gradually less in diameter, except towards the hinge, which is about an inch long; and in consequence of all the layers being united there, and prolonged into the tube, it becomes the thickest and strongest part of the structure. The elasticity of the materials also gives to this hinge the remarkable peculiarity of acting like a spring, and shutting the door of the nest spontaneously. It is, besides, made to fit so accurately to the aperture, which is composed of similar concentric layers of web, that it is almost impossible to distinguish the joining by the most careful inspection. To gratify curiosity, the door has been opened and shut hundreds of times without in the least destroying the power of the spring.' There are many others of this genus whose habitations display equal ingenuity, but our limits will not permit of their description. THE GALEODES. A spider known as the Galeodes vorax is common to India and the adjoining countries of Southern Asia. It is one of the most active and voracious, as its name implies, of the spider family; and presents so many peculiarities in its habits and mode of life, that we shall transcribe at length the interesting description given by Captain Hutton in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal: 'My first observations on this species were made in 1832, at Mirzapore, where it is very abundant, and of large size. During the rainy season, it was my constant habit, on a fine evening, to spread a sheet upon the ground near my house, upon which was placed a small lantern, to attract insects. In a very short time two or three of these ravenous spiders would make their appearance at the edge of the sheet, but at a respectful distance from each other; and no sooner did a moth, or a beetle, or a cricket alight upon it, than it was snapped up and devoured before I could lay hold of it. There seemed, indeed, to be no end to the appetite of these creatures; for they continued to seize and devour everything indiscriminately that came within their reach, even to large and hard-winged beetles, cutting them to pieces with their powerful jaws with the greatest ease. Many were the deadly fights I witnessed among these marauders, as they trespassed upon each other's beats, to get possession of some newly alighted prey, and often was I obliged to kill them, in order that I too might in turn obtain some share of the booty. This species is, strictly speaking, nocturnal, though I have sometimes seen them active in the daytime; they live beneath stones, and in holes in the ground, and never construct a net or other trap for their prey, seizing everything by main force, as they roam about in search of food. 'Again I fell in with this species abundantly at Neemuch, where they were also sometimes of large size. One of these I kept for some time in a vessel, the bottom of which was well supplied with earth, which had been purposely hardened by pouring water on it, and then allowing it to dry. The galeodes soon began to dig a hole, and in a very short time succeeded in making itself a subterranean retreat, in which it usually resided, seldom coming forth beyond the mouth of its den. It proceeded to dig out the earth at first with its strong jaws, cutting it away in a circle; and having thus loosened the soil, gathered it together into a heap with its anterior palpi, and threw it out behind, as a dog does in scratching a hole. When it had by this means succeeded in excavating a hole sufficiently large for it to enter, instead of throwing out the loose earth, as at first, it gathered a quantity together, and surrounding or embracing it with the anterior palpi, shoved the load by main force before it up the mouth of the cave, and then returned for more. Having completed its task, it remained for a few days stationary, and refused to feed, although previously it would devour several insects at a meal, and even small house-lizards. I now perceived that it was a female, the ova being distinctly visible through the skin of the abdomen, which was much distended. 'The ova were deposited in the cave, to the number of more than fifty, the parent being motionless amidst them. In the course of a fortnight, these, which were of the size of a largish mustard-seed, and of whitish hue, were all hatched. 'The young are at first motionless, and appear devoid of animation, until the period of three weeks has elapsed, at which time they cast the first skin. Their colour, which up to this time was pure milky white, now gave place to a faint tinge of pale brown, and the jaws and palpi became deep brown. They now threw off their lethargy, and began to move about, and occasionally sallied forth from the den, but instantly retreated on the slightest appearance of danger. All this time, however, they took apparently no food whatever, and yet they continued to grow both in size and activity. 'It was indeed very interesting to watch the motions of the parent at this season. From the generally bad and ferocious character which the spider tribe bears, I fully expected to see the parent, at the first craving of appetite, commence an attack upon her own family, and devour them; but the All-wise Creator has endowed even this ferocious spider with that most powerful feeling-maternal love; and thus is the galeodes, the very tiger of the insect world, subdued at this period into the anxious and tender mother. Placing herself in front of the aperture of the cave, she seized and examined between her anterior palpi everything that entered. I tried repeatedly to arouse her anger by thrusting in straws, hoping to make |