280 SPIDERS AND WILD BEASTS. 



tradicted by several carnivorous creatures, both of land and 

 water ; but the spider follows pre-eminently in the path of the 

 principal and earliest fratricide, by the habit of killing, and, in 

 cannibal-fashion, devouring its comrades, even of the same 

 family. Reaumur attempted to establish a factory of the large 

 garden spiders, for the sake of their strong and beautiful silk ; 

 but the factious weavers overturned his " projet' by turning 

 their fangs upon each other. If it were an agreeable object of 

 discovery, we might seek and find yet a few r more corresponding 

 points of character betwixt ourselves and the " villain spider ;" 

 and what is singular, such resembling features are the most 

 apparent in those species of the race which are greatest fre- 

 quenters of the human habitation and its neighbourhood, in 

 those which 



" Spread their nets, whether they In- 

 In poet's tower, cellar, barn, or tree." 



and which, comprising the spinners of house and garden, arc 

 of a class called Sedentaries, in distinction to the " Vagrant^' 

 and " Hunters," which, using no net, either lie in ambuscade, 

 or roam about, seeking what they may devour. 



Now-, as the " Sedentaries " are best representatives of prey- 

 ing men, so these latter, the " Vagrants" and the " Hunters," 

 are the nearer prototypes of preying beasts. And first, the 

 " Vagrants," cunning also in their cruelty, bear, perhaps, 

 greatest resemblance to the feline races, springing, like the 

 tiger from his lair, upon their unsuspecting prey. Of these, 



