200 TROPIC DAYS 



allusion to a living Maltese-cross spider close at hand, 

 a gleam of intelligence brightened his bewildered face, 

 and he delivered a self-satisfied dissertation on the 

 order Arachnida that is worth quoting: 



"That fella Oo-boo-boo. That fella mammy belonga 

 'nother fella altogether. You no savee, come close up 

 that fella ply way. You no savee, come close up, 

 that fella no good; that fella vite." 



And the boy looked gravely sagacious and smiled the 

 wide, wise smile betokening proud superiority of informa- 

 tion. Had Macgillivray but known that the "Oo-boo- 

 boo" was the parent of all the many species, and that 

 it belongs to the discreetly valorous class that "vites" 

 and flies away, and lives to "vite" another day, he might 

 have achieved renown of a more popular kind than is 

 the reward of the unromantic naturalist who discovers 

 merely a superior spider. 



This spider is used on some of the rivers as a lure, 

 virtues almost irresistible being ascribed to it. Experi- 

 ments in salt water, though not absolutely negative in 

 their results, have not afforded any specially exciting 

 sport ; but possibly the fascination of the lure is more 

 efficient in fresh than in salt water, and is influential over 

 the habitual caution throughout a certain species of fish 

 only. The trick is worked in the following manner: 



The angler takes a light, thin switch and entangles 

 one end in the web, which, by dexterous waving action, 

 is converted (without being touched with the fingers) 

 into a strand about two feet long. The spider is secured 

 and squashed, and the end of the line moistened in the 

 juices of the body, some of the fragments of which are 

 reserved for bait, and also to be thrown into the water 

 as a preliminary charm. These buoyant titbits attract 

 shoals of small fish, among which the line, with its 

 extract of spider, is delicately trailed; a fish rises to 



