240 FOOD OF INSECTS. 
of this tribe at times quit their habitations, and by various stratagems con- 
triye to come within reach of their prey, as by pretending to be dead, hiding 
themselves behind any slight projection, &c. A white species I have often 
observed squatted in the blossom of the hawthorn or on the flowers of um- 
belliferous plants, and is thus effectually concealed by the similarity of 
colour. ; 
Foremost amongst the spiders comprehended by Walckenaer under the 
general name of hunters, which search after and openly seize their prey, 
must be enumerated the monstrous Mygale avicularia, at least two inches 
long, and the expansion of whose feet has been sometimes found to extend 
nearly a foot wide, which takes up its abode in the woods of South 
America, and has been. reputed by Madame Merian’ to seize and devour 
even small birds ; but this is wholly denied by Langsdorf, who declares that 
it eats only insects’; a conclusion which is confirmed by Mr. W. S. Mac- 
Leay from his own observations on this species, which was very common 
in his garden in Cuba, and did him great service by devouring the Juli, 
Acheta@, cockroaches, &c., which are so injurious there to cultivated vege- 
tables. It issues from its hole at night only (never in the day time) to 
attack these insects; and so far from having any bird-catching propensities, 
Mr. MacLeay having placed a living humming-bird in the tube of a Mygale, 
it deserted it, leaving the bird untouched.? It is, however, very possible 
that other species may attack birds, as is asserted of Mygale Blondii by 
Palisot de Beauvais, of MZ. fasciata by Percival in his Account of Ceylon, 
and of a species common in Martinique by M. Moreau de Jonnés’ 
MMygale avicularia, as well as other tropical species, the European Cfeniza 
cementaria, and many others, construct in the ground very singular cylin- 
drical cavities, and therein carry and devour their prey. These, being 
rather the habitations of insects than snares, I shall describe in a subsequent 
letter. Lycosa saccata, the species whose affection for its young I have 
before detailed, and not a few others of the same family, common in this 
country, in like manner seize their prey openly, and when caught carry it 
to little inartificial cavities under stones. Dolomedes fimbriatus* hunts along 
the margins of pools ; and Lycosa piratica and its congeners not only chase 
their prey in the same situation, but, venturing to skate upon the surface 
of the water itself, 
“,. . . . bathe unwet their oily forms, and dwell 
With feet repulsive on the dimpling well.” 
The Rey. R. Sheppard has often noticed, in the fen ditches of Norfolk, 
a very large spider, which actually forms a raft for the purpose of obtaining 
its prey with more facility. Keeping its station upon a ball of weeds about 
three inches in diameter, probably held together by slight silken cords, it 
is wafted along the surface of the water upon this floating island, which it 
ae the moment it sees a drowning insect,—not, as you may conceive, 
or the sake of applying to it the process of the Humane Society, but of 
1 Bermerhungen auf einer Reise um die Welt, i. 63. 
2 Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. i. 191. 
5 Shuckhard in Ann, of Wat. Hist. viii. 486. 
4 According to M. Walckenaer this spider (Aranea fimbriata L.), A, marginata 
and A, paludosa De Geer; as well as Dolomedes limbatus Hahn, and D. marginalus 
of his Faune Frangaise, are mere varieties of the same species. (Ann. Soc. Lnt. de 
France, ii, 424, 
