356 NEW AEANEIDiF. OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 



believe that a spider would touch them. My garden, I repeat, is 

 full of these NephilcE in autumn, and I tried to regale one of them 

 with a small species of Sphmrio dactijlus by putting it into 

 her net. The spider on feeling the threads vibrate with the 

 struggles of the lizard instantly approached and enveloped it in 

 her web. As soon, however, as it was thus disabled, my Nephila 

 seemed to become aware of her mistake, and losing no time in 

 cutting the lines, allowed her prisoner to fall to the ground." 

 This conclusion, however, Mr. Macleay felt called upon six years 

 later to withdraw, for in a letter to W. E. Shuckard, Esq.,"^ dated 

 Sydney, 7th April, 1840, he stated that: — "In the vicinity of 

 Sydney he had met with a true bird-catching spider, he having 

 himself found one of the Epeiridw actually devouring one of the 

 young of the Zosterops that had recently flown from the nest; and 

 which is not a solitary instance, as his father, A. Maclea}'-, Esq., 

 had previously observed a similar fact." 



It is abundantly clear from the foregoing that the snares of 

 certain spiders arrest the young of certain birds, as also those of 

 a weak wing-power, but the author is decidedly of opinion that 

 the spiders in question do not obtain or receive nourishment from 

 their ornithological victims. The webs are not set with the object 

 of catching an}^ such game. Each snare is placed in its position 

 by the unerring instinct of the sj)ider, simply because the situation 

 is such as will assure abundance of food in the shape of insects, 

 and it is merely an accident when a bird becomes ensnared in the 

 toils. 



I do not deny that a Nephila has been observed with its fangs 

 plunged in the body of an ensnared bird, but that is not evidence 

 ipso facto that it was making a meal. It is more than likel}^, 

 indeed, that it attacks the bird, when it can safely do so, for the 

 purpose of injecting its poison, thus hastening death, and prevent- 

 ing the victim from too seriously injuring its web. Moreover, it 

 must be noted that when an}'- insect becomes entangled in the web 

 of a Nephila the spider rushes upon the intruder, and plunging 



* Lardner's " Cabinet Cyclopsedia," p. 382. 



