THE GREAT GRAB-SPIDER. 495 



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 snch 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 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 purchase, either to 

 the hooks with which its tarsi are armed, or to the claws which it employs to lull the birds and 

 the anolis (a kind of tree-lizard). The obstinacy and bitterness which it exhibits in combat 

 ceases 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 npon 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 recognized the same instinct of destruction. 



" The Mygale carries its eggs inclosed in a cocoon of white silk of a very close 



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

 corslet by means of its antennulse, 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 enormous size, and 



