114 IIOMEB WITHOUT HANDS. 



spider has a body nearly as large as that of a sparrow, and its 

 expanse of limb is seven or eight inches, whUe the humming-bird 

 is scarcely bigger than the common humble bee of our gardens 

 and fields. StUl, it did seem so strange that a spider should 

 attack a bird, that, failing a credible eye-witness, the story was 

 not believed. That want, however, has been recently supplied, 

 for Mr. H. W. Bates, who spent eleven years upon the banks of 

 the Amazon Kiver, has been an eye-witness to the murderof a small 

 bird by a great spider, and the question is now finally set at rest. 



" In the course of our walk, I chanced to verify a fact re- 

 lating to the habit of a large hairy spider, belonging to the genus 

 Mygale, in a manner worth recording. The species was M. avi- 

 cularia, or one very closely allied to it; the individual was 

 nearly two inches in length of body, but the legs expanded 

 seven inches, and the entire body and hair were covered with 

 coarse grey and reddish hairs. I was attracted by a movement 

 of the monster on a tree-trunk ; it was close beneath a deep 

 crevice in the tree, across which was stretched a dense white 

 web. The lower part of the web was broken, and two small 

 birds, finches, were entangled in the pieces. They were about 

 the size of the English siskin, and I judged the two to be male 

 and female. One of them was quite dead, and the other lay 

 under the body of the spider, not quite dead, and was smeared 

 with the filthy liquor or saliva exuded by the monster. I drove 

 away the spider, and took the birds, but the second one soon 

 died. ... I found the circumstance to be quite a novelty to the 

 residents hereabout." 



One of these spiders, kindly presented to me by Mr. Bates, is now 

 before me, and after examining the terrible fangs as they lie folded 

 under the head, and the enormous power of the long, clinging 

 legs, I believe that a small bird would stand a very poor chance 

 of life if once entangled in the fatal clutch. There are several 

 species of Mygale, some of which are great burrowers, making 

 holes of considerable depth. One species, Mygale Blondii, which 

 is easily known by the yellow stripes which run down its limbs, 

 is an admirable burrower, digging tunnels of two feet in depth, 

 and rather wide, and lining them with a silken coating, so as to 

 prevent the earth from falling in. In the evening, the spider 

 may be seen at the mouth of its hole, evidently watching 

 surroimdiiig events, but as soon as it perceives an approaching 



