The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-12-01

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forty, each one poisonous And, once
let centipede get on your skin and be-
come alarmed, no power on earth can
remove it quickly to prevent it from
digging Its venomous claws into your
flesh. 1t moves with the celebrity of
creased lightning" and when seen
running across an open floor appears
like O. brown streak.
There is one other object more horri-
bic to contemplate, and that is the tar
antula which also moves with surpris-
ing quickness. 1t does not glide, how
ever, like thing of evil. as the cent?
pede does: but leaps difectly at one
with a viciousness not to be mistaken.
remember well my first attempt to
capture one, in the beautiful botanical
garden of Martinique in the West In
dies I was strolling along the avenue
of stately palms (since destroyed by a
hurricane), when I saw big tarantula
directly in the path before me, half
hidden beneath the dead leaf of bread
fruit tree. l had stick in my hand
and poked the spider to make 1t get
into the open Instead of turning
about to escape it made leap for my
hand, which it missed only by few
inches. That was enough for me; did
not crave a live tarantula for my col
lection, though a moment later there
was dead spider in the path. Even
in death it is an ugly appearing thing,
large and hairy, with legs that would
stretch across a. saucer. On another
| occasion I saw tarantula on the wall
IS@f 1,Y,+ ~ h. I1tI ,trr1,% H.
| doorway through which the occupants
of the hut a black woman and her
| children, were constantly passing. !
| called their attention to the creature,
| but they merely glanced at it careless
ly and allowed 1t to retreat into the
| thatch of the roof.
| There is, however, one spider larger
| than the common tarantula, which is
abundant enough to be an object of
dread in the forests Of the Guianas.
This is the great bird spider, the my
gale avicularia" which catches and
kills not only birds but lizards, other
small reptiles and even young chick
ems. 1t builds its nests in the trees and
there lies in walt, just as the house
spider does for flies, leaping upon its
victim like a tiger. 1t is, in fact the
tiger of the tribe, and Is Justly feared
by both birds and human beings In
my excursions into the woods used to
pass an old tree, the trunk of which
was slightly followed. Beneath the
overhanging bark above the hollow a
family of bats had affixed themselves,
six of them, hanging by their toes,
noses downward They always chung
in the form of a triangle, three bats in
the upper row, then row of two, a
single bat at the bottom. One day /
missed the lowermost one, but the next
day his place had been supplied. The
following day two We're gone; and
when ! inquired of my negro guide the
reason and manner of his taking off, he
informed me that probably a bird spi-
der had captured him.
At another time I was hunting along
| shore for small birds, among the sea-
grapes, the hanging racemes Of creamy
white flowers attracting birds and in
sects, owing to the honey which they
contained. The first bird | shot there
was a black and-yellow 'sugar-eater,'
so-called from it's liking. for sugar and
| all sweet things, frequent visitor to
| the sugar plantations during the boil
| ing season. 1t fell, as l fired, into a
| dense cluster of ea-grapes; another
| bird attracted my attention just then,
and first noting the location of the one
had shot, l went in pursuit of the
second. I soon returned, but could not
| find my bird, though knew he must be
| somewhere near AS / was peering
| through the leaves, however, slight
| rustling drew my attention to a very
comical sight 1t was huge lizard
which, with one foot placed upon the
bird had shot, was iptently watching
me with his acknowledged eyes. He
| had stripped off some of the feathers
| from the dead bird, which he was hast
| lily devouring, having first drawn il
some distance from the spot where il
| had fallen. A tuft of yellow feathers
stuck to his nose, and these he vainly
| endeavored to scratch off with the
| claws of his right forefoot, at the same
| time cycling me very suspiciously
| First he would make a dig at his nose
| then cock his head over to one side
with a malicious CLEAN in his eyes, as
| if to ask what I was going to do about
| it The whole proceeding seemed tC
me so entertaining that, as there were
| sugar-eaters in plenty. l was ready tc
leave Mr.. Lizard in possession and &c
| off in search of another bird. But sud.
denly, just as I was turning away, q
| black, hairy object fell upon the lizard
| there was a short, sharp struggle and
my predatory friend was still in death
I was much Disguised at the terrnina-
| ton of the adventure. I might easily
have killed the spider (for such 1t was)
but I did not; I left him to enjoy his
| double dinner of bird and lizard
| 1t was indeed a revolving spectacle tc
see that horrible thing descend upon its
victim. Its bite, or sting, is said to be
extremely poisonous, and concluded
! that this must be so from the expedi-
tious manner in which it caused the
| death of the unlucky little reptile, Itself
as long as its slayer. The incident
made me decidedly nervous. The hide
Gus looking but harmless iguanas have
a habit of darting noisily through and
over the dead leaves on the ground
and for long time at every rush ]
/ would leap hastily aside, under the i'm