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ZOOLOGY. 
Mygale avicularia of South America is known to seize 
small birds and suck their blood. There are probably 
about eight hundred species of spiders in North America; 
their colors are often brilliant, and sometimes, from the 
harmony in their coloration with that of the flowers in 
which they hide or the leaves on which they may rest, 
elude the sight of insectivorous birds. John Burroughs, in 
his ^^Pepacton,'' says that one sunny April day his ^^atten- 
tion was attracted by a soft, uncertain purring sound" made 
by little spiders travelling about over the leaves. 
Class VI. — Iksecta. 
General Characters of Insects. — Winged insects have a 
separate head, thorax, and abdomen. They have compound 
as well as simple eyes, two pairs of wings, and three pairs 
of thoracic legs. There are sixteen orders. 
Ordeks op Insects. 
1. Wingless, often with a spring. Thysanura : Spring tails, etc. 
2. Fore wings minute, elytra li^Q.Dermaptera : Earwig. 
3. Wings net- veined; fore wings 
narrow; hind wings folded. . Orthoptera: Locusts, Grasshoppers. 
4. Four net-veined wings; mouth- 
parts adapted for biting Platyptera : White Ants, Bird-lice. 
5. Wings net- veined, equal Odonata : Dragon-flies. 
6. Wings net-veined, unequal Plectopiera : May files. 
7. Mouth beak-like,but with palpi Thysanoptera : Thrips. 
8. Mouth-parts forming a beak 
for sucking; no palpi Hemiptera: Bugs. 
9. Wings net- veined ; metamor- 
phosis complete JSfeuroptera : Lace-winged Fly, etc. 
10. Wings long and narrow Mecoptera : Panorpa. 
11. Wings not net- veined Trichoptera : Caddis-fly. 
12. Fore wings sheathing the hind- 
er ones Coleoptera : Beetles. 
13. Wingless, parasitic. Siplionaptera : Flea. 
14. One pair of wings Biptera : Flies. 
15. Four wings and body scaled . . Lepidoptera : Butterflies. 
X6. Four clear wings; hinder pair 
small; a tongue Hymenoptera : Bees, Wasps, etc. 
