148 In Touch with Nature. 



the allied utterances at home. At the limit of my 

 longest stroll I heard a mountain mocking-bird, as 

 it is misnamed in the books, and his was a disap- 

 pointing song. It was the twanging of a harp of 

 a single string, and that a loose one. 



Of skunks, lizards, snakes, and creatures of that 

 ilk I heard much, but my stay was too brief to 

 encounter any; but of the dreaded tarantula I 

 saw much, and, as usual, was disappointed. One 

 would fancy, from what he reads, that this huge 

 spider was a veritable fiend incarnate. If so, it 

 must be at seasons only. They were not so here 

 and now. During the day I could find no trace 

 of them, and it is said that during the dry season 

 they remain in their burrows or under heavy tim- 

 ber, as the floor of the railway platform, but after 

 sundown they made their appearance, and the first 

 impression I received was that no other spider 

 was so very timid. They started at approaching 

 footsteps, were ever disposed to run when ap- 

 proached, and showed fight only when cornered. 

 This seemed to me the more strange, as every 

 person I met held them to be very brave, very 

 fierce, and very poisonous. I could not verify 



