654 THE GEEAT CEAB-SPIDEE. 



Surely, the only method would be to ascertain, in the first place, that the Spiders could 

 not obtain the ants on which they usually fed, and then to watch the nests of the humming- 

 birds at night, to see if the Mygale paid them a visit. The experiments were simply futile. 

 Humming-birds never think of getting into subterranean burrows, and if a Mygale saw 

 such a bird making its way into his domicile, he would be justified in running away as 

 fast as he could from so strange a phenomenon. Lately, however, the Mygale has been 

 seen repeatedly to kill the young, not only of the humming-bird, but of other vertebrates, 

 and thus Madame Merian's reputation for veracity remains intact. It is true that, in one 

 or two places, she narrates circumstances which are not true ; but then she always takes 

 care to mention that such events were related to her by a third person ; and whenever she 

 speaks of any circumstance as having been witnessed by herself, her statements may be 

 implicitly relied upon. 



As a proof of her perfect veracity on this habit of the Mygale, I will quote a passage 

 from M. Moreau de Jonnes, who spent many years in Martinique, and watched carefully 

 the habits of these enormous Spiders : 



" It spins nc web to serve it as a dwelling. It burrows and lies in ambush in the 

 clefts of hollow ravines, in volcanic tufas, or in decomposed lava. It often travels to a 

 considerable distance, and conceals itself under leaves to surprise its prey, or it climbs on 

 the branches of trees to surprise the colibris (i.e. humming birds) and the certhia Jlaveola 

 (a bird allied to our common tree-creeper). It usually takes advantage of the night to 

 attack enemies, and it is commonly on its return towards its burrow that one may meet it 

 in the morning and catch it, when the dew, with which the plants are charged, slackens 

 its walk. 



The muscular force of the Mygale is veiy great, and it is particularly difficult to 

 make it let go the objects which it has seized, even when their surface affords no purchase 

 either to the hooks with which its tarsi are armed, or to the claws which it employs to 

 kill the birds and the anolis (a kind of tree-lizard). The obstinacy and bitterness which 

 it exhibits in combat cease only with its life. I have seen some which, though pierced 

 twenty times through and through the corslet, still continued to assail their adversaries, 

 without showing the least desire of escaping them by flight. 



In the moment of danger, this Spider usually seeks a support against which it can 

 raise itself and mark its opportunity of casting itself upon its enemies. Its four posterior 

 feet are then fixed upon the ground ; but the others, half extended, are ready to seize the 

 animal which it is about to attack. When it darts iipon it, it fastens itself upon the body 

 with all the double hooks that terminate its feet, and stretches to attain the superior base 

 of the head, that it may sink its talons between the cranium and the first vertebra. In 

 some of the American insects I have recognised the same instinct of destruction. 



.... The Mygale carries its eggs enclosed in a cocoon of white silk of a very close 

 tissue, forming two rounded pieces, united at their border. It supports this cocoon under 

 its corslet by means of its antennulae, and transports it along with itself. When very 

 much pressed by its enemies, it abandons it for an instant, but returns to take it up as 

 soon as the combat is concluded. 



The little ones are disclosed in rapid succession. They are entirely white ; the first 

 change which they undergo is the appearance of a triangular and hairy spot which forms 

 on the centre of the upper part of the abdomen. 



I had preserved from 1,800 to 2,000 of these, all of which proceeded from the same 

 cocoon. They were all devoured in the same night by some red ants, which, guided by an 

 instinct that set at defiance all my cares, discovered the box in which I had inclosed the 

 spiders, and insinuated themselves into it by means of an almost imperceptible aperture, 

 through which myriads of them passed, one by one, in the space of a few hours. It is 

 owing, in all probability, to the destructive war waged upon the avicularia by these insects 

 that the number of these Arachnida is confined within such narrow limits, which by no 

 means correspond with their prodigious capability of reproduction." 



The talons of the spiders are scientifically called by the appropriate name of " falces," 

 the word being Latin, and signifying a reaping-hook. By this name they will be called 

 in the course of the following pages. The falces of the great Crab-spiders are of 



