468 



ARTICULATA. 



[Chap. XIII. 



Some years later, however, the same writer felt it 

 incumbent on him to qualify this hasty conclusion l 9 

 inconsequence of having seen at Sydney an enormous 

 spider, the Epeira diadema, in the act of sucking the 

 juices of a bird (the Zoster ops dorsalis of Vigors and 

 Horsfield), which it had caught in the meshes of its 

 geometrical net. This circumstance, however, did not 

 in his opinion affect the case of the My gale ; and even 

 as regards the Epeira, Mr. MacLeay, who witnessed the 

 occurrence, was inclined to believe the instance to be 

 accidental and exceptional; " an exception indeed so rare, 

 that no other person had ever witnessed the fact." 



Subsequent observation has, however, served to sustain 

 the story of Madame Merian. 2 Baron Walckenaer and 

 Latreille both corroborated it by other authorities ; and 

 M. Moreau da Jonnes, who studied the habits of the 

 Mygale in Martinique, says it hunts far and wide in 

 search of its prey, conceals itself beneath leaves for the 

 purpose of surprising them, and climbs the branches of 

 trees to devour the young of the humming bird, and of 

 the Gerihia flaveola. As to its mode of attack, M. 

 Jonnes says that when it throws itself on its victim it 

 clings to it by the double hooks of its tarsi, and strives 

 to reach the back of the head, to insert its jaws between 

 the skull and the vertebrae. 3 



1 See Ann. and Mag. of Nat. by a curious movement of the 

 Hist, for 1842, vol. viii. p. 324. large grayish brown Mygale on the 



2 See authorities quoted by Mr. trunk of a vast tree : it was close 

 Shuckard in the Ann. and Mag. beneath a deep crevice or chink in 

 of Nat. Hist. 1842, vol. viii. p. the tree, across which this species 

 436, &c. weaves a dense web, at one end 



3 At a meeting of the Entomo- open for its exit and entrance. In 

 logical Society, July 20, 1855, a the present instance the lower part 

 paper was read by Mr. H. W. of the web was broken, and two 

 Bates, who stated that in 1849 at small finches were entangled in 

 Cameta in Brazil, he "was attracted its folds. The finch was about 



