ON AR.ACHNIDA. 
475 
The cocoon is usually globular, or ovoid, and presents at 
the interior, a wad of silk, tolerably thick, and often differently 
coloured from the silk which forms the exterior envelope. 
The eggs are very numerous, agglutinated, and placed in the 
middle of this sort of down. 
Many of these arane'ides lay eggs but once a year, which 
happens at the end of summer, or the commencement of 
autumn. Some epcira; compose webs of very strong threads, 
capable of arresting the flight of birds even as large as a wild 
pigeon. The epeirse described by M. Labillardiere, in his 
Voyage in search of La Pevrouse, is a viand greatly in esti- 
mation among the inhabitants of New Caledonia. They first 
kill these animals in earthen vessels, which they cause to be 
heated, and then grill them on the coals. The naturalist just 
mentioned saw two children swallow about one hundred of 
them. This species inhabits the w r oods, and its web also 
opposes much resistance. 
The Epeira cicatrosa spins its web against walls or other 
bodies, and remains concealed in a nest of white silk, which 
it forms under some projecting part, or in some cavity in the 
neighbourhood of its web. It gives no sign of life when it is 
taken, and never comes forth except at night ; it is then, or at 
all events when the light is weak, that it spins. Its web is 
often loaded, but without any order, with the carcases of the 
different insects which have served it as food ; even scolo- 
pendrae have been found there. Clerk, however, tells us 
that this species prefers phalente, and other nocturnal lepi- 
doptera to flies. It is also in the darkness of night that it 
devotes itself to the pleasures of love. The female lays in 
spring, and conceals its eggs in its habitation, or near it. Ac- 
cording to Clerk, the cocoon is the size of an ordinary pea. 
Lister tells us that the eggs are very crowded, and placed one 
upon the other in several strata, so that they form a firm, 
flatted, and orbicular body, like in figure and bulk to a lupin 
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