420 



TROPICAL AMERICA AND ITS ANIMALS 



eggs and drain the life-blood of the young of humming birds was recorded many- 

 years ago by two French travellers, the report was generally discredited in 

 Europe; and it was not till the naturalist-traveller H. W. Bates brought home 

 corroborative evidence, that the story received credence. On one occasion Bates 

 saw one of these spiders, which was nearly a couple of inches in length of body, 

 and covered a space of about seven inches when the legs were spread out. Bates 

 " was attracted by a movement of the monster on a tree-trunk ; it was close be- 

 neath a deep crevice in the tree, across which was stretched a dense white web. 

 The lower part of the web was broken, and two small birds, finches, were 

 entangled in the pieces." 



..--■ 



< 



BIRD-CATCHING SPIDER 



