230 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. X2T 



His choicest bits with ; then in a trice 

 ■ They make a feast less great than nice, 

 But all this while his eye is served, 

 We must not tlnnk his ear was starved: 

 But that there was in place to stir 

 His spleen the chirring grasshopper, 

 The merry cricket, puling fly, 

 The piping gnat, for nunstrelsy. 

 And now we must imagine first 

 The elves present to ijuench his tliirst 

 A pure seed pearl of infant dew, 

 Brought and besweetened in a blue 

 And pregnant violet. Then forthwith 

 He ventures boldly on the pith 

 Of sugared rush, and eats the sag 

 And well best.utted bee's sweet bag. 

 Gladding his palate with a store 

 Of emmets' eggs— what could he more ? 

 But beards of mice, a newt's stew'd thigb, 

 A bloated earwig and a fly : 

 With the red-capped worm that 's shut 

 Within the concave of a nut, 

 Brown as his tooth ; a little moth, 

 Late fattened in a piece of cloth ; 

 The unctuous dewlaps of a snail ; 

 The broke heart of a nightingale 

 O'ercome in music."* 



Spiders have oeen divided into various classes, 

 and although they have something- in common, yet 

 each has likewise something which distinguishes it 

 from the rest. The above wood-cut represents the 



* Horhck's Hesperides. 



