FOOD OF INSECTS. 241 
hastening its exit by a more speedy engine of destruction, The booty thus 
seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under which it retires when 
alarmed by any danger. 
The last of the tribe of hunters that it is necessary to particularise are 
those which, like the tigers amongst the larger animals, seize their victims 
by leaping upon them. To this division belongs a very pretty small banded 
species, Salticus scenicus, which in summer may be seen running on every 
wall. 
To Walckenaer’s swimmers, the last of his grand tribes of spiders, including 
the single genus and species, Argyroneta aquatica, the first line of the above 
quotation from Dr, Darwin is particularly applicable; for these actually 
seize their food by diving under the water, their bodies being kept unwet 
by a coating of air which constantly surrounds them,—Thus one single race 
of insects exemplify in miniature almost all the modes of obtaining food 
which prevail amongst predaceous quadrupeds—the audacious attack of 
the lion, the wily spring of the tiger, the sedentary cunning of the lynx, 
and the amphibious dexterity of the otter. 
This general view of the stratagems by which the spider tribe obtain 
their food, imperfect as it is, will, I trust, have interested you sufficiently 
to drive away the associations of disgust with which you, like almost every 
one, have probably been accustomed to regard these insects. Instead of 
considering them as repulsive compounds of cruelty and ferocity, you will 
henceforward see in their procedures only the ingenious contrivances of 
patient and industrious hunters, who, while obeying the great law of nature 
in procuring their sustenance, are actively serviceable to the human race in 
destroying noxious insects, You will allow the poet to stigmatise them 
as 
“. ... cunning and fierce, 
Mixture abhorred!” 
but you will see that these epithets are in reality as unjustly applied to 
them (at least with reference to the mode in which they procure their 
necessary subsistence) as to the patient sportsman who lays snares for the 
birds that are to serve for the dinner of his family ; and when you hear 
“.... the fluttering wing 
And shriller sound declare extreme distress,” 
you will as little think it the part of true mercy to stretch forth “ the 
helping hospitable hand” to the entrapped fly as to the captive birds. 
The spider requires his meal as well as the Indian ; and, however, to our 
weak capacity, the great law of creation “eat or be eaten” may seem cruel 
or unnecessary, knowing as we do that it is the ordinance of a beneficent 
Being, who does all things well, and that in fact the sum of happiness is 
greatly augmented by it, no man, who does not let a morbid sensibility get 
the better of his judgment, will on account of their subjection to this rule, 
look upon predaceous animals with abhorrence. 
One more instance of the stratagems of insects in procuring their prey 
shall conclude this letter. Other examples might be adduced, but the 
enumeration would be tedious. This, from an order of insects widely 
differing from that which includes the race of spiders, is perhaps more 
Curious and interesting than any of those hitherto recited. ‘The insect to 
R 
