NOTES FROM THE SCOTTISH ZOOLOGICAL PARK 167 



NOTES FROM 

 THE SCOTTISH ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



ANIMAL "STOWAWAYS." 



( Concluded from page 132.) 



The second stowaway referred to, much smaller but scarcely 

 less interesting than the snake, is a spider of the family Mygalidse, 

 which includes a number of tropical species that grow to a size that 

 makes the spiders we are familiar with in this country seem very 

 tiny and inconsiderable. Some of the largest of them would cover 

 a space of six to eight inches with the spread of their legs in an 

 ordinary walking position ; they are often called " bird-eating " 

 spiders, and they are certainly large and strong enough to over- 

 power any small bird which might become entangled in their webs. 

 The spider under notice, which was found in an Edinburgh fruit 

 warehouse, and was presented to the Park by Mr Andrew Reid, 

 represents a species common in the West Indies and Central 

 America, of somewhat moderate but still very respectable dimen- 

 sions. The body is about an inch and a half in length, and the legs 

 cover a space of about four inches in ordinary walking attitude. 

 The body and legs are covered with hair of a rich brown colour, 

 and to those who will acknowledge beauty in a spider, the creature 

 is not lacking in good looks. 



This spider is not an uncommon stowaway in bananas, and 

 probably enters them in pursuit of prey. In captivity the writer 

 has found it live well, feeding readily on cockroaches ; and as the 

 American cockroach is perhaps the most common creature of all 

 to come to this country among bananas, the reason of the spider's 

 presence in a similar place is quite clear. 



The most interesting banana "stowaway" that the writer ever 

 had was an American opossum. It is the only case he has ever 

 known of a mammal being imported in this way. In the case of 

 reptiles, spiders, and insects, all of which can fast for long periods, 

 food and water would not be an essential on the voyage, and it is 

 practically certain that none of them ever do feed on the way, but 

 the opossum is in a different position. It required regular food, 

 but it found it in the bananas surrounding it. The banana importer 

 loses nothing by the snakes or spiders which travel among his w^ares, 

 but it was not so with the owner of the opossum's travelling berth 

 who found his bananas much reduced in quantity; the opossum 

 was quite fat. 



