218 LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 



even of snakes and lizards, and has a way of 

 handling them so tenderly that he soon tames 

 them, and they even appear attached to him. 

 He kept the spiders some weeks, tied by the leg 

 with a string attached to a nail driven in the 

 wall of his chamber. At first they were exceed- 

 ingly fierce, spreading out their arms, as their 

 two fore legs are generally called, and showing 

 their terrific teeth whenever he approached 

 them. In a few days, however, they became 

 so tame as to crawl over his hand without 

 manifesting any symptoms of anger, and to eat 

 freely and without fear such food as he provided 

 for them. He frequently gave them pieces of 

 raw beef, which they devoured with great relish. 

 One day a humming bird was carried into the 

 room, and being brought within leaping dis- 

 tance of the spiders, they both sprang upon it 

 instantly, took it by force from the hands of the 

 person who held it, swung back with it to the 

 wall, and darted their deadly fangs into its 

 beautiful throat. In five or six minutes it was 

 dead, and in a few hours nothing of the poor 

 humming bird remained but its bones and fea- 

 thers. All the soft parts were consumed. 



