190 



AEACIINIDA. 



Fig. 



IMany make nets composed of regular meslies, and 

 spread them in favourable situations to entrap their 



victims ; while some 

 species, enveloping 

 their eggs in bags of 

 curious construction, 

 carry them about at- 

 tached to their bodies, 

 J^' ATS 4 '^W<"- ^^'^ defend them with 

 ^ M%\ '^^ "^^^^ utmost courage and 



^'^^ pertinacity. Even in 

 water these webs are 

 turned to many sin- 

 gular uses : and ropes, 

 nets, and even diving- 

 bells are at the dis- 

 posal of aquatic species, 

 furnished with this ex- 

 traordinary spinning 

 machinery. 



Spiders are divided into the following families, 

 each of which Avill require our notice : — 



The Mouse Spiders {Mi/gah)* In these the eyes are 

 always placed at the anterior margin of the cephalo- 

 thorax, and generally close together. Their palpi and 

 their feet are very robust. They are generally fiu-nished 

 with four spinnarets, with which they fabricate silken 

 tubes, that serve for their habitations; they are some- 

 times found under stones or under the bark of trees, or 

 hidden between leaves tied together. 



To this crroup belongs the celebrated Bird Spider 'Mygole avicii- 

 laria],the body of wliich is upwards of an inch and a half in length. 

 It manufactures its tube of a tis&ue so strong and dense, that it re- 

 sembles wliite muslin, and carries its eggs in a cocoon of the same 

 material, as large as a walnut. That these formidable creatures are 

 able to kill and live upon birds, as their name indicates, has been 

 disputed. The question has now, however, been set at rest. 



Mr. H. "\V. Bates, who for many years had an opportmiity of 

 observing their habits on the Amazon, writes as follows : — " In the 

 month of June, 1849, in the neighbourhood of Cameta, I was 



149.— SPIXNIXG APPARATUS OF THE 



SPIDER. (^ Greatly magii ified.) 



p.vyaXr], mygalc, a field-mouse. 



