4S0 
SPIDElt. 
Aranea palustris is of a leiigtliened form and of 
a brown colour, and is principally seen in damp 
or watery places. ^ 
Aranea aquatica is a middle-sized species of a 
deep chesnut-colour, residing entirely under water, 
generally in very clear ponds or fountains, and 
forming for itself a small tissue or web confining 
a proper quantity of air: sometimes this species is 
observed to take possession of a vacant shell, in 
which case it closes the mouth with a slight web. 
The exact distinction of species in this genus, 
especially among the smaller kinds, is often ex- 
tremely difficult and uncertain; since the animals 
are sometimes differently marked during the differ- 
ent periods of their life: some however are in this 
respect perfectly constant, bearing the same distri- 
bution of colours from their first hatching to their 
latest period. 
The gigantic Aranea avicularia or Bird-Catch- 
ing Spider is too remarkable an insect to be passed 
over in silence. This enormous spider is not uncom- 
mon in many parts of the East Indies and South- 
America, where it resides among trees; frequently 
seizing on small birds, which it destroys by 
wounding with its fangs, and afterwards sucking 
their blood: the slit or orifice near the tip of the 
fangs in spiders, through which the poisonous fluid 
is evacuated, and the existence of which has some- 
times afforded so much matter of doubt among 
naturalists, is in this sjiecies so visible that it may 
be distinctly perceived without the assistance of 
a glass. 
