184 ON ANIMAL AND 



According to Bingley, it lays between seven 

 and eight hundred eggs, which are hatched in 

 the spring; the parents being very short-lived, 

 and seldom surviving the winter. Like other 

 spiders, it makes a net or wall round its dwelling, 

 which is generally about four inches deep in the 

 ground, and half an inch wide. 



All the spider tribes possess poisonous fangs, 

 with which they kill their prey ; and in South 

 America, some of the species are very large and 

 appaling in their aspect, and will destroy even 

 small birds. But with the exception of the taran- 

 tula, the bite of the spider has little or no effect 

 on the human constitution ; though its external 

 appearance, and the prejudices of early educa- 

 tion, have stamped on it a character for viru- 

 lence, which it does not merit. 



The Scorpion is an animal of a very different 

 description from the tarantula ; it bearing a 

 nearer resemblance to a very small lobster, or 

 river cray fish, than to any other of the insect 

 tribe, most of which it exceeds in size and 

 virulence. 



This animal is to be met with in southern 

 Europe, the opposite coast of Barbary and other 

 parts of Africa, and in the East and West Indies ; 

 its haunts being principally about old buildings, 

 or under detached bricks and stones. It occa- 

 sionally makes its way into inhabited houses, 

 which renders their inmates liable to accidents 



