d, he avers that the
Cuban _Mygale_, an allied species to that of Guiana, makes no web, and
has no power of injuring birds. He put this to the test of experiment;
for having maimed a humming-bird, he thrust it into the _Mygale's_ hole,
which, instead of seizing the victim, retreated as in fear out of his
den. This Mr MacLeay supposes to be conclusive; but a moment's
reflection will shew how equivocal is the evidence. The spider may not
have been hungry; or he may have been taken aback by the sudden
intrusion; or he might not choose to take prey that he had not stolen
upon and slaughtered _suo more_; or he may have muttered in the
Arachnidan language,--

"Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes."

Because a wolf will cower down in the corner of his lair (even a tiger
has been known to do so)--when a man suddenly enters his presence, and
will manifest the most abject fear, would it be philosophical to
ridicule the tales told of wolves pursuing and devouring men by night?

M. Langsdorff asked the people of Brazil if the Caranquexeira, or the
great _Mygale_ of that country, fed upon humming-birds, when they
answered him, with bursts of laughter, that it only gratified its maw
with large flies, ants, bees, wasps, beetles, &c.; an answer which the
traveller verified by his own personal experience.[158] If M. Langsdorff
means, which of course he does, that he learned by personal observation
that the spider _ordinarily_ feeds on insects, that fact is indubitable,
and never has been doubted; but if he means that he had experience that
it eats _only_ such prey, which is the question at issue, it is plain
that this experience proves no more than that he never witnessed such a
fact.

Percival, in his account of Ceylon, observes:--"There is an immense
spider here, with legs not less than four inches long, and having the
body covered with thick black hair." This was doubtless the _Mygale_ of
the island. "The webs which it makes are strong enough to entangle and
hold even small birds, which form its usual prey." Alluding to this
statement, Sir Emerson Tennent says:--

"As to the stories told of the _Mygale_ catching and killing birds, I am
satisfied, both from inquiry and observation, that, at least in Ceylon,
they are destitute of truth, and that (unless in the possible case of
acute suffering from hunger) this creature shuns all description of food
except soft insects and annelides." And yet he immediately adds:--"A
lady at Maran