Bird-catching Spider, a name originally given to a large spider, Mygale avicularia, a native of Brazil, Cayenne, and Surinam; but now more extensively applied to a number of large species of Mygale, Epeira, and perhaps other genera. The body of M. avicularia is nearly 2 inches long, very hairy, and almost black. When the feet are stretched out the animal occupies a surface towards a foot in diameter. The hooks of its mandibles are strong, conical, and very black. This giant spider lives in clefts of trees or in hollows between stones, where it spins a muslin-like tubular nest. During the day the Mygale belief of their having power to expel the tooth-ache.
Mygale or Avicularia belongs to that section of spiders in which there are four breathing organs instead of the usual two. The members of this tribe do not form a proper web, but live in holes in the manner above described, and gain their livelihood by hunting. But even the quieter web-spinning spiders (e.g. Epeiridae) seem to manage occasionally to capture birds. Their toils are occasionally many feet long, and sufficiently strong to impede travellers in the forest, so that it is little wonder that humming-birds, and even larger forms, are sometimes entangled. See SPIDER.