654 THE GREAT CRAB-SPIDER. 



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 hum- 

 ming-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 care- 

 fully the habits of these enormous Spiders : 



" It spins no 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 (/. e. humming-birds) and the certhia 

 flaveola (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 very great, and it is particularly difficult to 

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

 chase either to the hooks with which its tarsi are armed, or to the claws which it em- 

 ploys to kill the birds and the anolis (a kind of tree-lizard). The obstinacy and bit- 

 terness 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 pos- 

 terior 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 upon 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 verte- 

 bra. In some of the American insects I have recognized 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 in- 

 closed the spiders, and insinuated themselves into it by means of an almost impercept- 

 ible 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 avic- 

 ularia 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 repro- 

 duction." 



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

 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 



