SPIDERS AND BIRDS. 283 



bodies."* . These "Hunters," at least some of them, though 

 they do not weave snares, can weave nests, usually a close tissue, 

 within crannies and crevices, their common lurking-places. 



The Wolf Spider f is another of the " Hunters/' which, 

 seizing its prey openly, bears it to its den, a cavity beneath a 

 stone. This carnivorous prowler, which is of a dark greenish- 

 grey, haunts the borders of ponds and streams, and, as well as 

 diving under, can walk on the surface of, the water ; and 

 another J can perform the same feat, either to escape enemies 

 or to pursue game, the various winged insects which skim the 

 face of the same liquid mirror. 



The power of fasting for long intervals between their san- 

 guinary repasts, is another characteristic held by many of the 

 larger predatory animals in common with the spider. One of 

 the latter, kept by Yaillant for ten months under a sealed 

 glass, was found reduced only in size, and not, seemingly, in 

 health or activity. 



Descending from carnivorous quadrupeds to birds of rapine, 

 we find the latter no less than the former represented, analo- 

 gously, in their habits of destruction by the spider race in 

 general; while in one singular tribe, the "Gossamers" popu- 

 larly termed " Fliers " the wingless insect approaches yet 

 nearer to the bird in its power of cleaving the upper air, and 

 that, as it would seem, not wafted on their floating lines or 

 webs merely at pleasure of capricious winds, but (being better 



* Evelyn's Travels iu Italy. f Lycosa saccata. % L. piratica. 



