tail_, was entirely devoured; the spider
sprung at it, and made a seizure immediately behind the shoulder, never
quitting its hold until the whole was consumed. The poor lizard
struggled violently at first, rolling over and over in its agony, but
the spider kept firm hold, and gradually sawed away with its double jaws
into the very entrails of the victim. The only parts uneaten were the
jaws and part of the skin, although the lizard was at least five inches
long from nose to extremity of tail. After this meal, the spider
remained gorged and motionless for about a fortnight, being much
swollen and distended.

"A young sparrow, about half grown, was placed under a bell-glass with a
_Galeodes_; the moment the luckless bird moved, the spider seized him by
the thigh, which he speedily sawed off, in spite of the sparrow's
fluttering; and then as the poor bird continued to struggle in pain, the
savage seized him by the throat, and soon put an end to his sufferings
by cutting off the head. It did not, however, devour the bird, nor any
part of it, but seemed satisfied with having killed it.

"On another occasion, I gave it a large garden-lizard, which was
instantly seized by the middle of the body; the lizard, finding that it
could not shake off its adversary, turned its head, and bit the
_Galeodes_ on the leg, which obliged it immediately to quit its hold and
retreat.

"On another occasion my friend, Dr Baddeley, confined one of these
spiders in a wall-shade with two young musk rats (_Sorex Indicus_), both
of which were killed by it."[161]

In an expedition to the Kurruckpoor Hills, south of Monghyr, Captain
Sherwill found upon the summit of Maruk, a table-topped hill of 1100
feet elevation, several of the gigantic webs of the Epeira spider, some
of which measured (including the guy-ropes) from ten to twelve feet in
diameter, the reticulated portion being about five feet, in the centre
of which the spider, of a formidable size and very active, sits waiting
for prey. "The webs," he says, "from their great strength, offered a
sensible resistance when forcing our way through them. In the web of
one of the spiders we found a bird entangled, and the young spiders,
about eight in number, feeding upon the carcase. The bird was, with the
exception of its legs and beak, entirely enveloped in the web, and was
much decomposed; the entwined web had completely pinioned the wings of
the bird, so as to render its escape impossible. The bi