168 SUN-BIRDS IN JAVA. 



scarce a native family, in these tiger-haunted 

 places, but has had some member of it carried 

 away and devoured. 



Java abounds in all the riches of the tropi- 

 cal world : birds and insects wear the splendid 

 colours that belong to the land of perpetual sum- 

 mer. 



The insects attain a size beyond what is ever 

 known in England. There are gigantic spiders, 

 that spin a network so strong that it has to be 

 cut with a knife. 



On one of these powerful threads the spider 

 suspends itself, as in mid-air, across the forest 

 glade, and seems mounted on some aerial bridge. 

 The birds might seize on the tempting morsel dis- 

 played thus openly before them. But Nature has 

 protected the spider by giving it a number of sharp 

 spines that stick out of its body. Some of these 

 spines are longer than the body of the spider itself, 

 and render it an unpleasant morsel for a bird to 

 swallow. 



In England, the spider wears a very sombre 

 dress ; but in the Tropics it is far otherwise. The 



