40 
MEMOm OF 
on the left. I^Tien they cannot obtain ants, they 
caiTy off even small birds from their nests, and suck 
the blood from their bodies. They occasionally 
change their skin, in the same manner as cater- 
pillars ; but I have never found them flying. These 
spiders seize upon humming-birds when sitting in 
their nests. This bird was foi-merly used by the 
priests of Sminam as an article of food, and I am 
assured that they were prohibited from eating any 
other kind of food. 
Ants of a large size are foimd in .iimerica, 
which in a single night sometimes strip trees of 
their foliage so completely as to make them re- 
semble stakes rather than trees. Th ey are armed unth 
two cur\’ed teeth wliich cut across each other like 
the blades of a pair of scissors, by means of which 
they cut off the leaves, which fall to the ground, 
leaving the branches as naked as winter makes 
them in Europe. Thousands of ants are waiting at 
the bottom to receive these leaves as they fall, and 
they immediately ciirry them to thefr nests, not as 
food for themselves but for their young, which are 
as yet only small worms ; for it is to be observed, 
that the winged ants lay eggs in the same manner 
as flies, from wliich are produced small worms or 
acari of two diflerent kinds, some of them enclosing 
themselves in a web, but the greater number passing 
into nymjihs. These nymphs some, who are igno- 
rant of the matter, call eggs, but the eggs are much 
smaller. The nymphs are employed at Surinam 
for feeding chickens, and they form a more nourish- 
