To supply therefore each of these leggs with its proper
strength, Nature has allow'd to each a large Chest or Cell, in which is
included a very large and strong Muscle, and thereby this little Animal is
not onely able to suspend its body upon less then these eight, but to move
it very swiftly over the tops of grass and leaves.
Nor are these eight leggs so prodigiously long, but the ninth, and tenth,
which are the two claws, KK, are as short, and serve in steed of a
_proboscis_, for those seem'd very little longer then his mouth; each of
them had three parts, but very short, the joints KK, which represented the
third, being longer then both the other. This creature, seems (which I have
several times with pleasure observ'd) to throw its body upon the prey,
insteed of its hands, not unlike a hunting Spider, which leaps like a Cat
at a Mouse. The whole Fabrick was a very pretty one, and could I have
dissected it, I doubt not but I should have found as many singularities
within it as without, perhaps, for the most part, not unlike the parts of a
Crab, which this little creature does in many things, very much resemble;
the curiosity of whose contrivance, I have in another place examin'd. I
omit the description of the horns, AA, of the mouth, LL, which seem'd like
that of a Crab; the speckledness of his shell, which proceeded from a kind
of feathers or hairs, and the hairiness of his leggs, his large _thorax_
and little belly, and the like, they being manifested by the Figure; and
shall onely take notice that the three parts of the body, namely, the head,
breast, and belly, are in this creature strangely confus'd, so that 'tis
difficult to determine which is which, as they are also in a Crab; and
indeed, this seems to be nothing else, but an Air-crab, being made more
light and nimble, proportionable to the _medium_ wherin it resides; and as
Air seems to have but one thousandth part of the body of Water, so does
this Spider seem not to be a thousandth part of the bulk of a Crab.
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