324 THE SPIDERS. 



part of the web was broken, and two small birds of the 

 finch tribe were covered with the threads. They were about 

 the size of the English siskin, and Bates thought they were 

 cock and hen. One bird was quite dead; the other lay 

 half-alive under the spider, smeared with the monster's filthy 

 saliva. Bates drove away the spider and rescued the bird, 

 which, however, died immediately. 



The Mygale species are, as Bates adds, very numerous in 

 Brazil. Some build under stones, others make tunnels in 

 earth, and others, again, make holes in the thatched roofs 

 of houses. The natives call them Aranhas carangueijares, 

 or crab-spiders. The hairs with which they are covered 

 remain sticking in the skin if they are touched, and cause 

 a very painful irritation. Many are of enormous size. 

 Bates one day saw some children which had fastened a 

 string round the body of a Mygale, and pulled it behind 

 them like a dog. Near Para, on the mouth of the Amazon, 

 the Mygales are very numerous in sandy places, and exhibit 

 the most various habits. Many build on or in houses nests 

 or places of refuge of a fine close web much resembling fine 

 muslin. Others build similar nests in trees, and it is these 

 which catch birds. The Mygale blondii, a red-brown, hair- 

 covered monster, five inches long, digs a tunnel in the earth 

 about two feet long and two inches in diameter, the inner wall 

 of which it tapestries with a handsome silver-like shining 

 web. It only goes hunting at night, and shortly before 

 sunset it may be seen watching at the month of its hole, 

 swiftly disappearing within if it hears a heavy footfall in its 

 neighborhood. Passing insects fall victims to its murderous 

 bitei 



Almost exactly in the same fashion behaves the mining, 

 or as Moggridgc named it, the trap-door spider (Mygale or 

 Cteniza cccmentaria and fodicns, first designated by Moggridge 

 as the Nemesia cccmentaria), an inhabitant of the South of 

 Europe, also belonging to the family of the tube-spiders or, 

 more exactly, to the Territelaria (earth-workers) ; this 

 animal, on account of the skill and the ingenuity with 

 which it builds its subterranean dwelling, and protects it 

 against attack from without, carries away the palm unchal- 

 lenged among all species of spiders with regard to interest 

 and intelligence, although it is far behind its Brazilian 

 relations in bodily size. The mandibular palpi of the Mygale 



