332 HABITS OF SPIDERS 



variably fill the ponds and rivulets in the tropics. This 

 mode of feigning death to escape its enemies, is the more 

 curious in this Crab, as it appears to be allied to the Grap- 

 #id(e, which are very energetic in then* endeavours to escape. 

 The under-surface is dark brown, of a lighter tinge on 

 the legs and post-abdomen, which latter has a light yel- 

 lowish line down the middle. 



Near the same spot, and not far from Calderas, a 

 species of Sesarma, of a brown colour, with the tips of 

 the chelae orange, and the cornea of the eye perfectly 

 concave, is very common. It lives in the fresh- water 

 rivulets, among weeds, like the Utica ; while another spe- 

 cies is found under damp logs, and stones, at a considerable 

 distance from any water. 



Never have I been better amused than when observing, 

 in the forests of Mindanao, the habits of the extraordi- 

 nary spiders that abound there, to figure and describe 

 the varied forms of which, would require the pencil of 

 Abbot, and many years of unwearied application. 



The bodies of the Epeirce, seen in the tropics, are often 

 most splendidly ornamented, I might almost say illumi- 

 nated, for many of them remind you of the gaudy ancient 

 missals, painted by monks in the dark ages. You may 

 have white figures on a red ground ; red, yellow, and 

 black, in alternate streaks ; orange marbled with brown ; 

 light green, with white ocelli ; yellow, with light brown 

 festoons ; or ash-coloured, and chesnut bodies, with 

 crescents, horse-shoes, Chinese characters, and grotesque 

 hieroglyphics of every description. Then, again, the 

 shape of their bodies is endless in variety; they are 

 round or oval, flattened or globular, angular, tubercu- 



