Guiana produces a formidable species of this sort (_Mygale avicularia_), which measures three inches in length, and whose feet--though the genus is, as I have said, comparatively short-limbed--cover an area some eight or ten inches in diameter. Madame Merian has exquisitely figured the tragical end of a tiny humming-bird, surprised by one of these monsters on her eggs; the petite bird overthrown under the fangs of the sprawling spider, one of whose feet is in the nest. It was on the authority of this lady that Linnæus gave the name of _avicularia_ to the species. Later naturalists have scouted the whole story. Mr MacLeay, who resided in Cuba, says that there are indeed there huge spiders, allied to our garden spider, which make a geometric net, strong enough to embarrass small birds; but that these do not attempt to catch such prey, and never molest birds at all. On the other hand, 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:--