320 



Marvels of the Universe 



does, take toll of all food that enters, which, as it is omnivorous, like the shark, never comes amiss 

 to its palate. It is able to perform all the natural functions while in this position ; and so it reaches 

 at once the summit of its ambition, that of obtaining all its needs with the minimum of effort. 

 The ingenuity of the Chinese fisherman, which has enabled him to utilize the voracious cormorant 



for fishing purposes, has also 

 seen the possibilities in the 

 Remora, and the unwilling 

 creature has been pressed 

 into the service of man in 

 a remarkable manner. In 

 waters where turtle abound, 

 a boat will put forth, having 

 a number of Sucking Fish 

 attached to her bottom, every 

 one of which has a ring fitted 

 round its body in front of its 

 tail, which has a long thin 

 cord fastened to it. Arriving 

 at the fishing-grounds, the 

 fisherman detaches the 

 suckers from his boat by a 

 gentle push forward from a 

 bamboo, and with the same 

 instrument prevents their re- 

 turn. They are thus forced 

 to swim about until they find 

 a turtle, to which they im- 

 mediately attach themselves, 

 and are then hauled in, 

 bringing their temporary host 

 with them. 



BIRD-EATING 

 SPIDERS 



BY R. I. POCOCK, F.R.S. 



It would not be quite the 

 truth to say that " Bird- 

 eating Spiders " are creatures 

 of romance, because it is un- 

 deniably true that large 

 spiders exist in the tropics 

 which eat small birds when 

 they can catch them. Never- 



Photo !»;/] 



[,/. ./, 



A BIRD-EATING SPIDER. 



theless, the popular behef that they subsist upon birds is equally undeniably false, and can 

 only be ascribed to the proneness- of man to accept and remember the marvellous and 

 forget all about the commonplace. The erroneous idea in question was unwittingly set on foot by 

 a lady, Madame Merian, who wrote a history of the insects of Surinam in the eighteenth century and 



