480 NATURAL HISTORY - 



liabits. These of our own country afford an ample field, which 

 has been as yet but imperfectly trodden. There are the Gossa- 

 mer Spiders, who float high into the air, borne upon an almost 

 invisible thread ; the "Water Spiders, who form an air-tight 

 dwelling under the wave ; the Hunting Spiders, that creep 

 stealthily upon their prey, and then spring on it like lightning ; 

 the beautiful Garden Spiders, who weave from their self-af- 

 forded stores their geometrical nets ; the Pirate Spiders, who 

 skim over the surface of the waters, and snatch up the drown- 

 ing and helpless fly ; together with many others, whose form 

 and habits must be familiar to any observer of Nature. 



On account of the limited space that can be given to each 

 Class, a short account of some of the principal species of .this 

 class is all that can be given. 



The enormous' Spider represented above is a native of 

 Surinam, and was brought into notice by that indefatigable 

 naturalist, Madame Merian. Her account of it is very short. 

 She relates that it carries about with it a habitation, re- 

 sembling the cocoon of some of the moths, and that it is 

 armed with sharp fangs and inflicts dangerous wounds, at 

 the same time injecting into the wound a poisonous liquid. 

 She also tells us that it feeds principally upon ants, but that 

 in their absence it drags little birds out of their nests, and 

 then, as she pathetically observes, " sucks all the blood out of 

 their poor little bodies."* Here, however, it is generally sup- 

 posed that Madame Merian has been imposed upon, as is 

 evidently the case in another portion of her work, where she 

 has drawn a curious insect, compounded of the head of a 

 lantern-fly, and the body of a cicada, She seems to have 

 had her doubts on the subject, for she says, " The Indians told 



me."f 



The common Garden, or Geometrical Spider, as it is called 

 from the mathematical regularity of its net, is an excellent 

 example of the Spiders. The net is formed from a gummy 

 substance secreted in an apparatus called the spinneret, 

 through the holes of which the gummy secretion is drawn 

 and becomes hard when exposed to the air. Each thread 



* " Formicarum defectu, ipsas c nidis tolltint aviculas, omnemque corpusculio 

 cruorem exsugunt." Merian. Mot. Insect. Sur. p. If?, 

 t " Persuasum mini ab Indis est " Id. p. 49. 



