While on the subject of noxious creatures, we remember that one, if not more, of the spiders of Madagascar must be included in the list. This is a small arachnid, about the size and shape of a marble, shining glossy black in colour, except for a small red spot on the fundament. It is greatly dreaded by the natives, who believe its bite to be fatal, and it is probably so if cauterisation and other remedies are not immediately applied. Dr Vinson, a French naturalist, ascertained that this spider, called _Mènavòdy_ by the people, is closely allied to the malignant _Latrodectus_ of Elba and Corsica, whose bite is believed to be fatal, and also to another spider found in Martinique, which is equally dangerous. People bitten by this Madagascar spider scream out with pain at intervals of a minute or two, as if it came on in paroxysms. I remember that one of our servants when bringing one of these spiders to look at took care to hold it at a very respectful distance from himself, at the end of a long stick. [Sidenote: SPIDERS] As we push through the bushes we break through many spiders’ webs, and are struck by the extraordinary shape of some of those whose snares we unwittingly destroy by our passing along. Here is one, small and reddish in colour, but much broader than it is long, each side projecting into a long sharp spike—indeed it is spiky in several directions, and is utterly unlike any other spider we know of. This is, I believe, a species of _Cærostris_ (_C. stygiana?_), and belongs to a genus of which several species have names denoting their demoniacal shape and colouring—_e.g._ _avernalis_, _stygiana_, etc. As we stop to observe his geometric web, and his bizarre shape, we see on the tree to which several of his main “guys” are fixed a very different spider’s house and a very different spider from our angular friend just mentioned. This creature is a much larger species than the other, with jet-black legs and satiny dark grey abdomen as large as a good-sized nut. He apparently hunts his prey, for he has no net, but hides himself in an inverted cup-shaped house of strong web. As I tap the top of this retreat he shams dead and tumbles down into the grass, from which he will presently ascend as soon as the enemy is clear off the ground. Close by this hunting spider’s home we see the large web of a third species, quite different from the other two. At first sight this appears to be the same insect as the large _Nephila_, which is so plentiful in Imèrina, in orchards and outside houses. A closer inspection, however, shows that it is a different species from that common large spider, for this one has a long filbert-shaped abdomen, striped with brown lines, very different from the golden and silvery markings of the more abundant species. It appears to be strictly a forest spider and seems rather rare.