42 MEMOIR OP 



flight, such multitudes traverse the houses in all 

 directions. When one house has heen in this 

 manner stripped and cleared, they pass on to the 

 next, till at length they return to their holes*." 



The ahove accounts, there can he little doubt, are 

 to a considerable extent fabulous. That the fero- 

 cious spider could easily overcome the tiny hum- 

 ming-birds, if it succeeded in catching them, is by 

 no means unlikely, but it is very improbable that it 

 would attempt to feed on them. The mygale in 

 fact is scarcely ever seen on trees, but resides in 

 tubes under ground, and generally remains close to 

 the surface, while the humming-birds never alight 

 but on branches. Its food consists of wood-lice, 

 subterranean crickets, and cockroaches ; and when a 

 humming-bird was once placed for experiment in one 

 of its tubes, it was not only not eaten by the spider, 

 but the latter actually quitted its hole and left it in 

 possession of the intruder. The existence of any 

 bird-catching spider in America, is therefore regarded 

 by those who have had ample opportunities of obser- 

 vation, as wholly improbable t. The nest is very ill 

 drawn, and ought to have contained only two eggs. 



Plate xx. is one of the best finished of the whole, 

 and is highly interesting to the entomologist, as 

 containing excellent figures of the caterpillar and 

 cocoon of the giant owl-moth, Erebus Strix, Fair., 



* Insects of Surinam, p. 18. 



*} A communication on this subject, made by Mr. M'Leay 

 to the Zoological Society, will be found in Taylor's PhiL 

 Mag. vol. iv. p. 460. third series. 



