The Black-Bellied Tarantula 1 1 



modulantuY. Quo audita, ferox exit Tarentula 

 ut muscas vel alia hujus modi insecfa, quorum 

 murmur esse putat, capiat; captatur tamen ista 

 a rustico insidiatore." ^ 



*The Tarantula, so dreadful at first sight, 

 especially when we are filled with the idea that 

 her bite is dangerous, so fierce in appearance, 

 is nevertheless quite easy to tame, as I have 

 often found by experiment. 



' On the 7th of May 1812, while at Valencia, 

 in Spain, I caught a fair-sized male Tarantula, 

 without hurting him, and imprisoned him in 

 a glass jar, with a paper cover in which I cut a 

 trap-door. At the bottom of the jar I put a 

 paper bag, to serve as his habitual residence. 

 I placed the jar on a table in my bedroom, so 

 as to have him under frequent observation. He 

 soon grew accustomed to captivity and ended 

 by becoming so familiar that he would come 

 and take from my fingers the live Fly which I 



^ ' When our husbandmen wish to catch them, they approach 

 their hiding-places, and play on a thin grass pipe, making a sound 

 not unlike the humming of bees. Hearing which, the Tarantula 

 rushes out fiercely that she may catch the flies or other insects of 

 this kind, whose buzzing she thinks it to be ; but she herself is 

 caught by her rustic trapper.' 



