FOOD OF INSECTS. 241 



hastening its exit by a more speedy engine of destruction. The booty thus 

 seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under which it retires when 

 alarmed by any danger. 



The las't of the tribe of hunters that it is necessary to particularise are 

 those which, like the tigers amongst the larger animals, seize their victims 

 by leaping upon them. To this division belongs a very pretty small banded 

 species, Salticus scemcus, which in summer may be seen running on every 

 wall. 



To Walckenaer's swimmers, the last of his grand tribes of spiders, including 

 the single genus and species, Argyroneta aquatica, the first line of the above 

 quotation from Dr. Darwin is particularly applicable ; for these actually 

 seize their food by diving under the water, their bodies being kept unwet 

 by a coating of air which constantly surrounds them. Thus one single race 

 of insects exemplify in miniature almost all the modes of obtaining food 

 which prevail amongst predaceous quadrupeds the audacious attack of 

 the lion, the wily spring of the tiger, the sedentary cunning of the lynx, 

 and the amphibious dexterity of the otter. 



This general view of the stratagems by which the spider tribe obtain 

 their food, imperfect as it is, will, I trust, have interested you sufficiently 

 to drive away the associations of disgust with which you, like almost every 

 one, have probably been accustomed to regard these insects. Instead of 

 considering them as repulsive compounds of cruelty and ferocity, you will 

 henceforward see in their procedures only the ingenious contrivances of 

 patient and industrious hunters, who, while obeying the great law of nature 

 in procuring their sustenance, are actively serviceable to the human race in 

 destroying noxious insects. You will allow the poet to stigmatise them 

 as 



" . . . . cunning and fierce, 

 Mixture abhorred!" 



but you will see that these epithets are in reality as unjustly applied to 

 them (at least with reference to the mode in which they procure their 

 necessary subsistence) as to the patient sportsman who lays snares for the 

 birds that are to serve for the dinner of his family ; and when you hear 



" . . . . the fluttering wing 

 And shriller sound declare extreme distress," 



you will as little think it the part of true mercy to stretch forth " the 

 helping hospitable hand" to the entrapped fly as to the captive birds. 

 The spider requires his meal as well as the Indian ; and, however, to our 

 weak capacity, the great law of creation "eat or be eaten" may seem cruel 

 or unnecessary, knowing as we do that it is the ordinance of a beneficent 

 Being, who does all things well, and that in fact the sum of happiness is 

 greatly augmented by it, no man, who does not let a morbid sensibility get 

 the better of his judgment, will on account of their subjection to this rule, 

 look upon predaceous animals with abhorrence. 



One more instance of the stratagems of insects in procuring their prey 

 shall conclude this letter. Other examples might be adduced, but the 

 enumeration would be tedious. This, from an order of insects widely 

 differing from that which includes the race of spiders, is perhaps more 

 curious and interesting than any of those hitherto recited. The insect to 



