dan, near Colombo, told me that she had, on one occasion,
seen a little house-lizard (_gecko_) seized and devoured by one of these
ugly spiders."[159] Does he not, then, credit his informant? Or are
lizards included in the category of "soft insects and annelides?"

Against this incredulity, resting on no better than negative evidence,
one might adduce collateral proof from analogy. There _are_ spiders
which feed on vertebrate animals, and there _are_ spiders whose webs
catch birds. The large and beautiful _Nephila claripes_ of tropical
America weaves strong threads of yellow silk in the paths of the woods,
converging to a web quite strong enough to arrest a bird of weak flight.
It must have been a species allied to this, but certainly, I think, not
the same, of which Dr Walsh speaks in his "Travels in Brazil." "Among
the insects is an enormous spider, which I did not observe elsewhere. In
passing through an opening between some trees, I felt my head entangled
in some obstructions, and on withdrawing it, my straw hat remained
behind. When I looked up I saw it suspended in the air, entangled in the
meshes of an immense cobweb, which was drawn like a veil of thick gauze
across the opening, and was expanded from branch to branch of the
opposite trees as large as a sheet ten or twelve feet in diameter. The
whole of this space was covered with spiders of the same species but
different sizes; some of them, when their legs were expanded, forming a
circle of six or seven inches in circumference.[160] They were
particularly distinguished by bright spots. The cords composing the web
were of a glossy yellow, like the fibres of silkworms, and equally
strong."

There is a creature found in the tropical parts of both hemispheres,
called _Solpuga_, which though not exactly a spider, is yet so closely
allied to that family as to be in some measure responsible for its
misdoings. It is about as large as the _Mygale_, and, with sufficient
general resemblance to it to warrant its being popularly considered a
spider, it has much the same habits and appetites. Captain Hutton, in a
most interesting memoir, describes the details of an Indian species
under the name of _Galeodes vorax_. Among many other details, he
says--"This species is extremely voracious, feeding at night upon
beetles, flies, and even large lizards; and sometimes gorging itself to
such a degree as to render it almost unable to move. A lizard, three
inches long, _exclusive of