gray-brown colour, and clothed with coarse pile. Doubtless you will immediately know the exact species to which I refer. "If the Mygales did not prey upon vertebrated animals, I do not see how they could find sufficient subsistence. [Illustration: BIRD-EATING SPIDER.] "On the extensive sandy campos of Santarem, so bare in vegetation, there are hundreds of the broad slanting burrows of the large stout species, (that fine one, dark brown with paler lines down the legs, of which I sent specimens in 1851.) The campos, I know, from close research, to be almost destitute of insects, but at the same time to swarm with small lizards, and some curious ground finches of the Emberiza group (one of which has a song wonderfully resembling our yellow bunting of England), besides which, vast numbers of the _Caprimulgidæ_ and ground doves lay their eggs on the bare ground. "I believe this species of Mygale feeds on these animals and their eggs at night. Just at the close of day, when I have been hurrying home, not liking to be benighted on the pathless waste, I have surprised these monsters, who retreated within the mouths of their burrows on my approach."[163] [142] _Brit. Rept._, 51. [143] _Penny Cyclop._, xxvi. 348. [144] Loudon's _Mag. Nat. Hist._ for 1837, p. 441. [145] _Zool._, 2305. [146] Ibid., 2355. [147] _Zool._, 7278. [148] _Captivity among the Indians._ [149] _Zool._, 2269. [150] _Introd. à l'Entom._, ii. 143. [151] _Op. cit._, viii. 163. [152] _Westwood's Mod. Classif. Ins._, ii. 430. [153] _Introd. to Entom._ Lett. xxv. [154] _Mag. Nat. Hist._, New Ser., i. 353. [155] Ibid., i. 553. [156] Dr Boisduval, one hot evening in June, found caterpillars on grass which diffused a phosphorescent light; he thought them to be those of _Mamestra oleracca_--one of the most abundant of our moths--but they seemed larger than common; and whether owing to want of care in the rearing or to a condition of disease--which may, indeed, have been the cause of their luminosity--none of them attained the chrysalis state, and so the species was not absolutely decided. [157] _Introd. to Entom._, _loc. cit._ [158] _Exped. into Int. of Brazil._ [159] Tennent, _Ceylon_, ii. 226. [160] Probably we should read "diameter" for "circumference." A spider whose legs cover an area of six inches _in circumference_ is by no means rare even in England. [161] _Journ. Asiat. Soc._ [162] _Proc. Entom. Soc._, November 1, 1852. [163] _Proc. Entomol. Soc._, July 2, 1855. VIII. FASCINATION.