230 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. XIV. 



His choicest bits with ; then in a trice 



They make a feast less great than nice, 



But all this while his eye is served, 



We must not think his ear was starved : 



But that there was in place to stir 



His spleen the chirring grasshopper, 



The merry cricket, puling fly, 



The piping gnat, for minstrelsy. 



And now we must imagine first 



The elves present to quench his thirst 



A pure seed pearl of infant dew, 



Brought and besweetened in a blue 



And pregnant violet. Then forthwith 



He ventures boldly on the pith 



Of sugared rush, and eats the sag 



And well bestrutted bee's sweet bag. 



Gladding his palate with a store 



Of emmets' eggs what could he more ? 



But beards of mice, a newt's stew'd thigh, 



A bloated earwig and a fly : 



With the red-capped worm that 's shut 



Within the concave of a nut, 



Brown as his tooth ; a little moth, 



Late fattened in a piece of cloth ; 



The unctuous dewlaps of a snail ; 



The broke heart of a nightingale 



O'ercome in music."* 



Spiders have oeen divided into various classes, 

 and although they have something in common, yet 

 each has likewise something which distinguishes it 

 from the rest. The above wood-cut represents the 



* Hcrrick's Hesperides. 



