368 CHAPTER LI. 



them. The panacea for all poisonous bites among 

 Mr. Gal ton's party was the oil from their tobacco pipes. 



There is a minute spider considered poisonous by 

 the natives. This insect is of a bright yellow colour, 

 and lives gregariously in a web which radiates from a 

 centre in all directions. When at rest they are 

 gathered together in a dense cluster, but, if you touch 

 the web, an innumerable swarm of little spiders spread 

 themselves like golden beads along the threads. Then 

 they slowly re-assemble. These centrifugal spiders 

 are seen in Spring by the roadside everywhere on the 

 Riviera. I have not often seen them in England. 



In the hill district there is a huge hairy creature 

 which tries to walk across the ceiling and falls off. 

 This insect illustrates the derivation of the word 

 "hideous " from the Latin "hispidus," rough, hairy. 



Dr. Allen Sturge (my kind and skilful medicine 

 man) found a small bird caught in a spider-web. This 

 web was weighted with a pebble. It would be inter- 

 esting to know whether this spider regarded the bird 

 as a welcome or unwelcome capture. I think that the 

 insect must have raised the pebble into the air by 

 pulling on a line which he had, as he supposed, made 

 fast to the ground. It is not likely that he carried 

 the stone up the tree, and then hung it from the web. 



But the spiders which attract most attention are 

 the remarkable species which close their little burrows 

 with a lid (Fig. 122). These Trap-door Spiders are 

 described in a book by Moggridge. They are abun- 

 dant in the Vallon Obscur, Nice, and common on 

 mossy banks. 



