Chap. XVII. SPIDERS. 325 



mornings, and abound most near the villages. Some sing as 

 loudly as our thrushes, and the king-hunter {Halcyon Senegal- 

 emis) makes a clear whirring sound like that of a whistle with a 

 pea in it. During the heat of the day all remain silent and 

 take their siesta in the shadiest parts of the trees, but in the 

 cool of the evening they again exert themselves in the produc- 

 tion of pleasant melody. It is remarkable that so many song- 

 birds abound where there is a general paucity of other animal 

 life. As we went forward we were struck by the comparative 

 absence of game and the larger kind of fowls. The rivers con- 

 tain very few fish. Common flies are not troublesome as they 

 are wherever milk is abundant ; they are seen in company with 

 others of the same size and shape, but whose tiny feet do not 

 tickle the skin, as is the case with their companions. Mosquitoes 

 are seldom so numerous as to disturb the slumbers of a weary 

 man. 



But though this region is free from common insect plagues, 

 and from tsetse, it has others. Feeling something running 

 across my forehead as I was falling asleep, I put up the hand to 

 wipe it off, and was sharply stung both on the hand and head : 

 the pain was very acute. On obtaining a light, we found that it 

 had been inflicted by a light-coloured spider, about half an inch 

 in length, and, one of the men having crushed it with his fingers, 

 I had no opportunity of examining whether the pain had been 

 produced by poison from a sting, or from its mandibles. No 

 remedy was applied, and the pain ceased in about two hours. 

 The Bechuanas believe that there is a small black spider in the 

 country, whose bite is fatal. I have not met with an instance in 

 which death could be traced to this insect, though a very large 

 black hairy spider, an inch and a quarter long and three quarters 

 of an inch broad, is frequently seen, having a process at the end 

 of its front claws similar to that at the end of the scorpion's tail, 

 and when the bulbous portion of it is pressed, the poison may be 

 seen oozing out from the point. 



We have also spiders in the south which seize their prey by 

 leaping upon it from a distance of several inches. When alarmed, 

 they can spring about a foot away from the object of their own 

 fear. Of this kind there are several varieties. 



A large reddish spider (Myyale) obtains its food in a different 



