250 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



bers and ate them. They fwallowed, at leafl, 

 a hundred of them in our prefence. We found 

 in the fequel, on the fame ifland, feveral other 

 inhabitants who were fearching eagerly for 

 this fort of diih. So extraordinary, and at the 

 fame time fo generally diifufed a tafte among 

 thefe large tribes, furprifed us very much, al- 

 though it is known that fome Europeans eat 

 fpiders, particularly thofe of cellars, which are 

 found to have the tafte of a hazel-nut. 



The inhabitants of New Caledonia call this 

 fpecies of fpider nouguee^ and I defignate it by 

 the name of arenea edulis. It is reprefented of 

 the natural fize, in Plate XII. Fig. 4. The dif- 

 polition of its eyes (See Fig. 5 and 6.), eight in 

 number, two of which are near the middle of 

 the corfelet and very far from the others, induce 

 me to clafs it in a new feftion. They are of a 

 black colour; the corfelet, which is grayifh 

 above, is covered with filvery hairs; between 

 the eyes are fcen four brown fpots ; it is black 

 underneath ; the belly, which, upwards, is of 

 the fame colour as the upper part of the corfelet, 

 is marked with eight or ten indentations of a 

 brown colour ; on its fides are {twcn or eight 

 oblique grayifh ftripes, and, underneath, feveral 

 fawn-colour fpots ; the feet, which are alfo 

 fawn-coloiir, and covered with filvery gray 

 hairs, are blackifh at their extremity. 



A marine 



