202 SPIDERS. 



those plants being its favourite food. It 

 usually changes into a chrysalis in the month 

 of September, retiring for that purpose pretty 

 deep under the surface of the earth, the 

 complete insect emerging the following June 

 or July. The Sphinx is generally considered 

 as a very rare insect ; and as the caterpillar 

 feeds chiefly by night, concealing itself by 

 day under leaves, &c. it is not often de- 

 tected. — Dr. Gregory. 



Spider.— ^fi^ivE^. 



The gigantic Aranea Avicularia, or Bird- 

 catching Spider, is too remarkable an insect 

 to be passed over in silence. This enormous 

 Spider is not uncommon in many parts of 

 the East Indies and South America ; where 

 it resides among trees, frequently seizing on 

 small birds, which it destroys by wounding 

 with its fangs, and afterwards sucking their 

 blood ; the slit, or orifice, near the tip of the 

 fangs in Spiders, through which the poison- 

 ous fluid is evacuated, and the existence of 



