THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



139 



matter ; whilst the Trap-door Spider of the West Indies 

 burrows deeply into the ground, lines it well with silk, 

 and makes a perfectly circular trap-door to fit the open- 

 ing, and attached to it by a silken hinge. Almost all 

 spiders wrap up their eggs in a silken cocoon, which some 

 of them tear open when the young are hatched. Some 

 carry these egg-cases under their breast, others at the end 

 of their body ; and when the young ones are set free, 

 they swarm over the body of their mother, who carries as 

 many as she can make room for on her back. 



Spiders kill their victims by means of their formidable 

 jaws, armed with sharp fangs, through which the poison 

 passes into the wound. The bite of a house-spider is 

 instantly fatal to flies and other insects; and that of 

 some of the larger species is even dreaded by man, being- 

 very painful not only producing much inflammation and 

 swelling, but often much fever. Death has been known 

 to result from it. One large species, called the " Bird- 

 Spider," whose body is more than an inch and a half in 

 length, and which has its home in the Brazils, but which 

 is also met with in great numbers in the Plains of 

 Santarem, devours birds, lizards, &c. 



There are very numerous families of. spiders, and they 

 have been arranged, according to their habits, into five 

 groups: i, Hunting Spiders; 2, Wandering Spiders; 

 3, Prowling Spiders ; 4, Sedentary Spiders ; 5, Water 

 Spiders. 



The last order of Articulated animals is that called 



Crustacea, which seems to represent insects and 

 spiders adapted for life in water. The skins of these 

 animals, however, instead of being merely a stiff mem- 

 brane, gather horny or calcareous* matter from the waters 

 in which they live, and so form a crust around them, which 



* Calx, lime. 



