282 HUNTING SPIDERS. 



to outstrip his eight-legged spring, or to escape the eight 

 terrible claws which will soon engrasp the feathered honey- 

 sipper, and bear it from its sunny joys to be devoured in a den 

 of darkness. 



The " Hunter'' here is the gigantic "Bird Spider"* of 

 South America ; its prey, which it equals in dimensions, one 

 of the glittering, quick-winged humming-birds which often, 

 it is said, fall victims to this insect enemy, for bulk and fierce- 

 ness the lion of its tribe. 



Compared with the above, our little native tiger of the same 

 race t may seem a tame and insignificant destroyer ; but not 

 so, we warrant, to its insect prey. This is of that pretty, 

 common species, banded like the zebra, with stripes of black 

 and white. Everybody must have seen them upon sunny 

 walls, and window-seats, and palings (their scorching deserts) 

 from spring to autumn, though not many, perhaps, have 

 derived as much " divertissement y as the ' Sylvan ' Evelyn 

 from observation of the cunning dexterity with winch they 

 watch, then leap upon their prey ; when he noticed of these, or 

 of some allied venatores, how that one of them, if it " happened 

 not to be within a competent leap, would move so softly as the 

 very shadow of the gnomon seemed not to be more imper- 

 ceptible, unless the fly moved, and then would the spider move 

 also in the same proportion, keeping that just time with her 

 motion, as if the same soul had animated both those little 



9 



* Mygale avicularia. f Salticus scenicus. See Vignette. 



