HUNTING SPIDERS. 389 



claws which will soon engrasp the feathered honey-sipper, 

 and bear it from its sunny joys to be devoured in a den of 

 darkness. 



The " Hunter" here is the gigantic " Bird Spider" 1 of South 

 America ; its prey, which it equals in dimensions, one of the 

 glittering, quick-winged humming-birds which often, it is 

 said, fall victims to this insect enemy, for bulk and fierceness 

 the lion of its tribe. 



Compared with the above, our little native tiger of the same 

 race 2 may seem a tame and insignificant destroyer ; but not so, 

 we warrant, to its insect prey. This is of that pretty, common 

 species, banded, like the zebra, with stripes of black and white. 

 Everybody must have seen them upon sunny walls, and win- 

 dow-seats, and palings (their scorching deserts) from spring to 

 autumn, though not many, perhaps, have derived as much 

 " divertissement " as the " Sylvan " Evelyn from observation of 

 the cunning dexterity with which they watch, then leap upon 

 their prey ; when he noticed of these, or of some allied vena- 

 tores, how that one of them, if it " happened not to be within 

 a competent leap, would move so softly as the very shadow of 

 the gnomon seemed not to be more imperceptible, unless the 

 fly moved, and then would the spider move also in the same 

 proportion, keeping that just time with her motion, as if the 

 same soul had animated both those little bodies." 3 These 

 " Hunters," at least some of them, though they do not weave 

 snares, can weave nests, usually a close tissue, within crannies 

 and crevices, their common lurking-places. 



The Wolf Spider 4 is another of the " Hunters," which, seizing 

 its prey openly, bears it to its den, a cavity beneath a stone. 

 This carnivorous prowler, which is of a dark greenish-grey, 

 haunts the borders of ponds and streams, and, as well as diving 

 under, can walk on the surface of, the water; and another 5 



1 Mygale avicularia. * Salticus scenicus. See Vignette. 



3 Evelyn's " Travels in India." 4 Lycosa saccata. 5 L. piratica. 



