one
an enormous black and hairy spider, with feet armed with double-hooked
claws.

"Isn't this a tarantula, M. Sumichrast?"

"No, my boy, it is a bird-catching spider--so called because it is said
to attack the humming-birds' nests and destroy the young ones."

"May I catch it?"

"Not with your fingers; its bite is dangerous."

"One might easily fancy it was watching us, from the expression of those
two big eyes near its mouth."

"There is no doubt that it is looking at us; just menace it with this
little stick, and you'll soon see it assume the defensive."

The enormous spider raised its front feet, and two black and polished
horns issued from its mouth. After a moment's hesitation, it suddenly
darted at the end of the stick, which Lucien let go in fright.

Ten or twelve paces farther on, the young naturalist discovered another
spider, and plied me with numerous questions about it. I could only give
him a few general facts as to this curious class of animals.

"But, I say, papa, there must be a great many different species of
spiders, for I see some at every step--green, black, and yellow."

"There are so many species that all of them are not yet known; indeed, I
believe that the Mexican spiders have not hitherto been described. It is
necessary to study them on the spot, for their soft bodies change their
shape in drying, and the proper means of preserving them are not within
the reach of an ordinary traveller."

In passing along, I broke through some threads of a light web stretching
between two bushes. The proprietor of the web--a gray spider--immediately
made its appearance, and set hurriedly to work to repair the involuntary
damage I had committed.

"Where does the thread come from?" asked Lucien; "it is so thin that I
can scarcely see it."

"From four reservoirs situated at the lower part of the spider's
abdomen, and filled with a gummy matter which becomes solid as soon as
it is exposed to the air. These reservoirs are pierced with about a
thousand holes, from each of which proceeds a thread invisible to the
naked eye, for it takes a thousand of them to form the thread the spider
is now spinning."

"How sorry I am now that I hadn't collected more of these curious
insects! Some we have met with were very curious."

"In the first place," I replied, "spiders are not insects; they have
both heart and lungs, but insects breathe through air-pipes.[P] Added to
this, insects have antennae, and undergo