190  MR.  W.  S.  MACLEAY  ON  THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  MYGALE. 
found  her  to  be  correct,  I  confess  that  I  can  attach  little  credit  to  her  description  of  the 
metamorphosis  of  Ur.  Leilus. 
Had  Madame  Merian,  however,  been  only  guilty  of  inaccuracy,  it  might  have  been 
pardoned  ;  indeed  it  is  a  pardon  which  the  most  careful  of  us,  as  the  poet  says,  "  peti- 
musque  damusque  vicissim ;"  but  her  wilful  inventions  are  inexcusable.  She  it  was, 
I  believe,  who  first  agitated  the  nerves  of  our  unscientific  great-grandmothers  with  the 
choice  fable  of  hird-catching  Spiders.  The  history  of  this  fiction,  although  perhaps 
rather  infringing  on  the  unity  of  my  Paper,  is  somewhat  curious,  as  it  will  show  how 
what  may  have  originally  been  nothing  more  than  a  vague  filmy  misconception,  can 
become  gradually  embodied  into  a  pictorial  lie. 
The  earliest  account  of  American  Spiders  is  by  Oviedo  in  1547,  who  says  nothing 
of  their  catching  birds,  although  those  which  he  describes  as  "no  muy  pequenas,  que 
paresce  que  tienen  figura  de  rostro  humano  en  alguna  manera,"  are  doubtless  the 
species  which  makes  the  strongest  web  in  the  West  Indies,  namely,  Nephila  clavipes. 
The  next  mention  I  meet  with  of  American  Spiders  is  by  Pere  Labat,  in  an  account 
of  '  Les  Isles  de  Bermudez',  which  appears  to  have  been  taken  from  some  early  English 
work  on  those  islands'.  Labat  says  in  1640,  "  On  n'y  a  trouve  jusques  ici  nuls  ani- 
maux  veneneux ;  mesmes  les  arraignees  n'y  sont  nuisibles,  les  quelles  on  y  trouve  fort 
belles,  et  elegamment  begarrees  de  diverses  couleurs,  comme  on  escrit,  et  qui  en 
Teste  filent  de  si  fortes  toiles  que  les  petits  oiseaux  s'y  empestrent."  Now  all  this 
is  very  likely  to  be  true,  and  probably  relates  to  some  species  of  the  genus  Nephila  of 
Dr.  Leach. 
The  next  account  of  American  Spiders  I  have  is  by  Rochefort  in  1658,  in  his  '  Hi- 
stoire  Naturelle  et  Morale  des  Antilles',  where  he  clearly  alludes  to  the  passage  just 
quoted.  He  admirably  describes  that  large  brown  Spider  of  tropical  America  which  is 
now  called  Mygale^,  and  ends  his  description  with  the  following  words:  "  EUes  se 
nourissent  de  mouches  et  de  semblables  vermines,  et  on  a  remarque  qu'en  quelques 
endroits,  elles  filent  des  toiles  qui  sont  si  fortes,  que  les  petis  oiseaus  qui  s'y  embar- 
rassent,  ont  bien  de  la  pene  de  s'en  developper.  On  dit  le  m^me  des  araignees,  qui  se 
trouvent  communement  dans  les  isles  Vermudes,  qui  sojit  habitees  par  les  Anglois  ;  il 
est  aussi  fort  probable  qu'elles  sont  d'une  meme  espece."  The  mention  of  birds  being 
introduced  here,  as  it  was  by  P^re  Labat,  merely  to  show  the  strength  of  the  web,  this 
passage  is  so  far  correct ;  but  it  certainly  refers  not  to  the  plain  brown  My  gale  our 
'  A  work  on  the  natural  productions  of  the  Bermudas  is  much  wanted  to  illustrate  the  geography  of  Natural 
History,  as  also  a  work  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  Azores. 
This  name  was  given  hy  Walckenaer ;  but  Mygale  was  the  ancient  Greek  name  for  the  Shrew-mouse,  and 
has  in  consequence  been  with  propriety  assigned  by  Cuvier  as  a  generic  name  to  the  Sorex  moschatus  of  Lin- 
naeus. We  entomologists  ought  therefore  to  abandon  this  name  to  so  legitimate  an  owner,  and  adopt  for  our 
Spider  the  name  Theraphosa,  which  M.  "Walckenaer  has  more  lately  given  \t. 
