284 SPIDERS, FISHES, AND REPTILES. 



ballooners than ourselves) with a power of directing their own 

 course through the atmospheric ocean. That the object of 

 their aerial flight is also, in part, hawk-like, for the pursuit 

 and capture of living prey, would seem probable from the fact, 

 that within the tangle of descended fragments of flake or 

 gossamer are generally found imprisoned a variety of small 

 winged insects, the remnants, perhaps, of the aeronaut's super- 

 abundant meal. 



Of these " Gossamers ' it has been observed that, " as 

 not only birds, but some squirrels and fish can fly, so there is 

 a species of spider which has the power of floating or moving 

 in air : but creation is full of analogies, pointing to one general 

 Originator, and linking all sentient things into one great family 

 of related fellow-creatures."* 



To the devouring and amphibious reptile and the rapacious 

 fish, the spider race no less offers its analogies in economy and 

 disposition. Breathing by means of gills, they are able to 

 dive, and walk under water, sometimes hunting on shore and 

 plunging with their prey to the bottom. In the Diving Spider,t 

 from whose singular habitudes we have spun elsewhere an 

 imaginary tissue,! this faculty of respiration is further aided 

 by that of carrying down a supply of atmospheric air to her sub- 

 aqueous habitation : in what manner, has been also described ; 



* Sharon Turner's ' Sacred History of the World.' 



f Argyroneta aquatica. 



% See " Fresh-Water Syren ;" also " A New Gallery of Practical Science." 



