494 THE GREAT CRAB-SPIDER. 



ence, that the bite of an angry Spider inflicts a really painful injury, not very dissimilar to the 

 sting of a wasp. I have seen a lady's hand and arm swollen so as to be hardly recognizable 

 as belonging to the human figure, in consequence of a bite inflicted by a large Spider on the 

 back of her hand. 



They all spin those remarkable nets which we popularly call "webs," and which differ 

 wonderfully in the various species. These webs are, in very many instances, employed as 

 traps, wherein may be caught the prey on which the Spider feeds, but in other cases are only 

 used as houses wherein the creature can reside. Some of the uses to which these wonderful 

 productions are put, as well as some details of their structure, will presently be mentioned. 



We now pass to the typical species of these curious animals. 



The Spiders belonging to the family Mygalidse may at once be known by the shape of 

 their mandibles and the terrible claws which proceed from them. In the greater number of 

 Spiders, the claws are set horizontally, but in the Mygalidse they are bent downwards, and 

 strike the prey much as a lion clutches at his victim with his curved talons. Several species 

 of these Spiders are known, most of which attain to considerable dimensions, and some are so 

 enormously large as to become really formidable creatures, which man himself does not like 

 to attack except with a weapon of some kind, or, at all events, with a shod foot. 



The GREAT CRAB-SPIDER, which is represented in the fine colored illustration, belongs to 

 the typical genus of this family, and is one of the formidable Arachnida that are said to prey 

 upon young birds and other small vertebrates, instead of limiting themselves to the insects, 

 and similar beings, which constitute the food of the generality of the Spider race. All Spiders 

 are carnivorous, the dimensions of their prey varying with those of the destroyer, and it is 

 by no means an illogical supposition that a Spider whose spread of limb equals that of a human 

 hand, might suck the juices of some of the smaller and more helpless vertebrates. 



In Madame Merian's well-known work on the insects of Surinam, there is a careful and 

 forcible sketch of one of these great Spiders (Mygale amcularia) engaged in preying upon a 

 humming-bird, which it seems to have taken out of its nest. She gives also a description of 

 this Spider, mentioning that it chiefly feeds upon ants, but that when they fail, it climbs the 

 trees and catches the humming-birds. For a time this account was believed, and the Spider 

 received the specific name of amcularia in consequence of its bird-catching propensities. 

 After a while, however, several persons ventured to discredit the story, and at last both the 

 account and the illustration were set down as simple fabrications of the imagination. Experi- 

 ments were also tried, dead humming-birds being put into the dens of these Spiders, without 

 any result, and the whole of Madame Merian's account was boldly denounced as fabulous. 



Yet there were many observers of nature who continued to think that so painstaking 

 a naturalist as Madame Merian, who had spent many years of her life in constant investiga- 

 tions, was not likely to have given so circumstantial an account without some grounds for it. 

 That she was quite correct in saying that the Spider fed generally on ants, was conceded even 

 by her opponents, and it was just possible that she might not be wholly incorrect in the latter 

 part of her statement. 



Moreover, they thought that the experiments were by no means conclusive, and that the 

 natural conditions were not fulfilled. It was true enough that when a dead humming-bird 

 was pushed into the nest of a Mygale, the creature did not attempt to eat it, but retreated to 

 the back of its den, or tried to get away. They thought that the Mygale could not be 

 expected to act otherwise, and that there was a vast difference between a dead humming-bird 

 pushed into a burrow in the daytime by a huge heavy-footed biped, and a living humming- 

 bird, asleep at night in its nest upon a tree. An animal of any kind must be left undisturbed, 

 if the observer wishes to gain an insight into its habits ; and if he deliberately violates all the 

 conditions, he can hardly expect favorable results. If a practical naturalist wishes to learn 

 whether the Mygale, a nocturnal being, is in the habit of visiting the trees at night and 

 robbing the nests of the humming-birds when it could not obtain its proper supply of ants, he 

 would hardly set to work in so clumsy a manner as to poke a dead humming-bird into the 

 creature's burrow by day. 



Surely, the only method would be to ascertain, in the first place, that the Spiders could 



