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narbonensis (Lat.). It has phosphorescent eyes, the use of which we can easily 

 see when we know its habits. It makes a hole in a slanting position into the 

 ground, the depth of it being something under a foot. Down this hole the 

 animal lives, having prepared for himself what in railway language would be 

 called a siding or hole in the side of bis nest. There he places himself, with the 

 greater part of his body except the front part being concealed. His eyes, which, 

 of course, are brightly light in his house, are always turned upwaids. No doubt 

 they attract the creatures which are food for him. As soon as a creature gets into 

 the nest, which is lined with web throughout, it gets nearer and nearer the 

 bottom, and of course is easily mastered and overpowered by the spider. Our 

 spiders are said to have the power of shining in the dark, as well as being able to 

 see by day. In this respect they are very like the eyes of a cat. This shining 

 power must be of great service to them, for we must not forget that animal life in 

 the way of insects, birds, and other things, is very animated when we are in bed 

 and fast asleep. 



The mandibles of spiders, corresponding to the claws of lobsters and 

 crabs, are very formidable weapons. If any creature, on which the spider 

 can feed, once gets between them, there is certainty of something correspond- 

 ing to wliat would be, with us, broken bones. You have an arrangement 

 very like the claws of a crab and just as dangerous. The two e.\treme ends 

 of the claw or fang are moveable ; they move in a socket a very little distance 

 from this point. But they cannot move sideways — only backwards and forwards — 

 only to or from each other. Fancy a small insect getting between these ends of 

 the fangs ; they have hold of the poor little thing, and in coming towards each 

 other pin it tighter and tighter down into a set of upright horny points, and 

 impale the thing at once. Escape is impossible. A cat or dog, in common with 

 most animals (man included) has eye teeth which are longer than the others, and 

 therefore hold the food permanently at will. A cat could not hold a mouse in her 

 mouth and run along with it as she does, unless she had these teeth, without the 

 mouse dropping down. But a cat's teeth are nothing like as formidable as those 

 of the spider. A fly spiked on those points and being pressed on to them more 

 and more by the fang, instances one of the most terrible weapons for death 

 that we know. But there is a little more to be said about the mandible ; it 

 carries along it the poison. This can be traced, at least the passage where it goes 

 can, in transparent slides where the mounting permits it, and as there is a small 

 opening or hole very near the end of the fang, the spider can not r.nly hug 

 fearfully on the pinnacles, but also use its poison on its prey and so, in the case of 

 a horny beetle, ensure death either in one of two ways, or in both ways. The 

 poison of spiders is of a very strong kind ; it irritates mankind, but of course is 

 too small in quantity to do more than worry men. StiU, to show its strength, let 

 a spider sting another spider, and in about five minutes it will be dead. Spiders 

 do fight — they iight with a rancour that no human being can surpass, if he can 

 equal it. They fight, too, with little provocation. A wife does not hesitate to 

 fight her partner to death and then to eat him up. The fangs of these creatures, 

 it is scarcely necessary to mention, can be used at pleasure in injecting the poison 



