22 BIBD-CATCHING SPIDEE. 



sluggish cockroaches, which swarm under almost 

 every stone. So far from making a geometrical 

 web, like the crafty Epeirida, Mygale . only 

 spins at times a fine white silken tapestry to 

 line its tube withal, and to keep itself dry. In 

 rainy weather, indeed, I have noticed the orifice 

 of this tube, if not opening under a stone, to be 

 sometimes closed by an irregular cobweb." In 

 a note the writer says, " The holes of the 

 Mygale avicularia are very common in my 

 garden, and in external appearance are exactly 

 what, in the gardens of England, are called 

 toad-holes. The Mygale is of the greatest use 

 to me, as it feeds on the Achetce, Gryllotalpee, 

 Blattce, and other subterranean Orthoptera (all 

 burrowing insects) that are the greatest plagues 

 of the horticulturalist in warm countries.*' The 

 Mygale is nocturnal in its habits, wandering by 

 night to great distances, and often crawling into 

 houses, an unwelcome guest, although, from its 

 inactivity, it may be easily, and without danger, 

 crushed. Its bite, however, is said to be worse 

 than the sting of the scorpion. " Nevertheless, 

 as to these immense spiders (the expansion of 

 whose feet has been sometimes found to extend 

 nearly a foot wide) killing Humming-birds, it is 

 not merely that they possess no net or other 

 means for catching them, but they will not even 

 devour them when caught ; for I once placed a 

 live Humming-bird and a small lizard (Anolis) 

 in the tube of a Mygale, and it deserted it, 



