THE TARANTULA. 
BY G. LINCECUM, M. D. 
Tus very large hunter-spider makes its appearance in 
Texas some years as early as the twenty-fifth of May, 
generally, however, not earlier than the first days of June. 
They dwell in the ground in a hole, which they excavate 
themselves, about one inch in diameter, and six or eight 
inches deep, widening a little at the bottom. They make 
their nocturnal hunting excursions for some distance from 
the hole, returning to it early in the morning, and are 
occasionally seen walking out of evenings, and also in 
cloudy days. They would probably hunt their prey alto- 
gether by daylight, were it not for their dread of the 
great Pompilus formosus, or Tarantula Killer, their natu- 
ral enemy. Towards sunset, about the first of June, 
the Mygale Hentzii, or Tarantula, is often seen creeping 
along the narrow paths in the grassy woods, or in the 
prairies, searching for some kind of small game,— worms, 
grasshoppers, small lizards, anything they can kill, upon 
which they leap with great violence and wonderful agil- 
ity. I discovered one of their holes several years ago in 
my garden, and, looking into it, could see the eyes of 
the Tarantula glittering like coals of fire. I procured a 
large fat grub, and holding it near the mouth of the hole, 
the Tarantula instantly rushed out, and seized the grub 
With such violence as to startle me. I fed it daily for 
two weeks, and it consumed two large grubs each day. 
It became quite tame and much more decent in taking its 
meals from my hands. 
On going into the garden one evening, I met our large 
ted-winged Pompilus—it was also one of our pets, parad- 
AMERICAN NAT., VOL. I. 52 (409) 
