The Black-Bellied Tarantula 31 



confirm the open-air experiment with experi- 

 ments in the privacy of my study. I therefore 

 got together a menagerie of these poisonous 

 Spiders, so as to judge of the virulence of their 

 venom and its effect according to the part of 

 the body injured by the fangs. A dozen bottles 

 and test-tubes received the prisoners, whom I 

 captured by the methods known to the reader. 

 To one inclined to scream at the sight of a 

 Spider, my study, filled with odious Lycosse, 

 would have presented a very uncanny ap- 

 pearance. 



Though the Tarantula scorns or rather fears 

 to attack an adversary placed in her presence 

 in a bottle, she scarcely hesitates to bite what 

 is thrust beneath her fangs. I take her by 

 the thorax with my forceps and present to 

 her mouth the animal which I wish stung. 

 Forthwith, if the Spider be not already tired 

 by experiments, the fangs are raised and in- 

 serted. I first tried the effects of the bite upon 

 the Carpenter-bee. When struck in the neck, 

 the Bee succumbs at once. It was the lightning 

 death which I witnessed on the threshold of the 

 burrows. When struck in the abdomen and 



