224 MYGALE. RUNNING SPIDERS. 



it is only in the former, that we find those of largest size. 

 Amongst these, some of the large South American species have 

 been said, by Madame Merian and others, to devour small birds ; 

 and although little credit has hitherto been attached to these 

 statements, yet from an account recently furnished by Mr. Bates 

 to Mr. Adam White, of the British Museum, and communicated 

 by the latter gentleman to the Zoological Society, they would 

 appear to have some foundation in fact. Mr. Bates says, that 

 he, on one occasion, surprised a Mygale in the act of preying 

 upon a small Finch, which had been entangled in a web near the 

 root of a tree ; and he adds, that from the multitude of these 

 spiders which exist upon the dry plains in the neighbourhood of 

 Para, on which insects are very scarce, he feels convinced that 

 they must feed upon the young and eggs of the small ground birds 

 which are their co-inhabitants of these wildernesses. The TDBI- 

 COL^. and CELLULICOL^E are not sufficiently distinct from the 

 preceding, to require particular notice. They are mostly of smaller 

 size, and inhabit temperate climates, where they may be con- 

 sidered as representing the Mining Spiders. 



826. The tribes of CURSORES, or Runners, and SALTATORES, 

 or Leapers, forming the second division of the Hunting Spiders, 

 are distinguished by the activity with which they pursue their 

 prey. The former, which are sometimes called Wolf- Spiders, 

 have the legs adapted for running, and live mostly upon the 

 ground. Those of the genus Lycosa dwell in holes which they 

 have formed, lining their inside with silk, and increasing their 

 size as they grow. Some of them take up their abode in holes of 

 walls, where they make silken tubes ; the outside of which they 

 cover with earth or sand, and in which they moult or hybernate, 

 having first closed the entrance. The females also lay their 

 eggs in these tubes ; enclosing them in a silken cocoon, or egg- 

 case, which they carry about with them when they go out to 

 hunt. The young ones fasten themselves, as soon as they are 

 hatched, upon the body of their parent ; and there remain 

 attached, until they are sufficiently strong to seek their own 

 food. These Spiders are very voracious, and defend their habita- 

 tions and young with great courage. A species of this genus 



