BIRD-CATCHING SPIDER, a name originally- given to a large spider, mygale aricularia, a native of Cayenne and Surinam; but which is now more extensively applied. being equally appropriate to a number of large species of mygale (q.v.) and epeira (q.v.), perhaps also of other genera. It has been denied by sonic observers that the name is truly appropriate, but the positive evidence is too strong to be easily set aside by evidence merely negative. The mygale aricularia is nearly two inches long, very hairy, and almost entirely black; its feet, when stretched out, occupy a surface of nearly a foot in diameter. The hooks of its mandibles are strong, conical, and very black. This great spider forms a tube-shaped cell, widening towards the mouth, of a fine white semi transparent tissue, like muslin, in clefts of trees or hollows among rocks and stones. From this it issues only at night, to prey upon insects, and, it is said, upon humming birds. It does not construct a net for the capture of its prey, but takes it by hunting,
as do other large species of mygale, natives of the warm parts of America, the East Indies, and Africa. It is probably a species of this genus that Dampier mentions as found in Campeachy, the fangs of which, "black as jet, smooth as glass, and, at their small end, as sharp as a thorn," are said by him to be worn by some persons in their tobacco-pouches. to pick their pipes with; and to be by others used as toothpicks, in the belief of their having power to expel the toothache. The bite of the large species of this genus is said to be dangerous. • It appears that spiders of the genus epeira feed upon small birds caught in their webs, which have even been described as in some cases large enough to arrest the flight of s bird the size of a thrush, and to impede the traveler in tropical forests.