SPIDERS. 133 



amusing themselves witli a gigantic Mygale, which they had se- 

 cured by tying a string round its waist, and were leading about 

 as if it had been a dog. 



While living, the Mygale sheds its hairs very easily ; and as 

 these hairs penetrate the skin and are of a painfully irritant char- 

 acter, like those of the palmer- worm and other British caterpil- 

 lars, the incautious naturalist is apt to buy his experience of the 

 Mygal^ rather dearly. The natives call these creatures " Aran- 

 has caraAgueijeiras," or Crab Spiders, because they are so strong 

 and so large. 



Several large spiders that live mostly upon the ground are 

 confounded together under the general name of Tarantula. There 

 is scarcely a part of the world where is not found some great Ly- 

 cosa, or Wolf Spider, that is popularly called by the dreaded name 

 of Tarantula, and feared lest its bite should produce the disease 

 which was once so rife through Europe, and called Tarantismus. 

 These are all more or less burrowers, and line their tunnels with 

 a silken coating, so as to prevent the earth from falling in upon 

 them. Some of them hunt about after prey, while others sit at 

 the entrance of the den and wait for the approach of any passing 

 insect, which they may seize and devour at their leisure in the 

 safe retreat of the neighboring burrow. In this tunnel their 

 young are hatched, and, as soon as they can struggle themselves 

 free from the egg, they clamber upon their mother's back, and 

 there cling in heavy clusters, often hiding her shape by their 

 numbers. , 



One species of spider that goes by the name of Tarantula is 

 resident in Siberia, and hides in holes in the ground. The peas- 

 antry are greatly afraid of it, fancying that it will bite them, and 

 that its bite will cause great injury. For their terrors there are 

 really some grounds, inasmuch as the spider is a savage kind of 

 creature ; and if a knife be pushed into its den, it will rush out 

 in a fury, and try to bite the blade. In all probability, however, 

 it is not very venomous, for it is actually eaten by sheep as they 

 graze. 



Of all the burrowing spiders, however, none is so admirable an 

 excavator as the Trap-door Spider of Jamaica, and none dis- 

 plays so rnuch ingenuity in the arrangement of its burrow. Speci- 

 mens of both the ^tunnel and the spider are now before me, and 



