diff --git a/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst b/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst
index fe0bfeb8a..77f327b35 100644
--- a/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/downloader-middleware.rst
@@ -177,7 +177,9 @@ DefaultHeadersMiddleware
 .. class:: DefaultHeadersMiddleware
 
     This middleware sets all default requests headers specified in the
-    :setting:`DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS` setting.
+    :setting:`DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS` setting plus those found in spider
+    ``default_request_headers`` attribute. Spider headers has precedence over
+    global headers.
 
 HttpAuthMiddleware
 ------------------
diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/defaultheaders.py b/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/defaultheaders.py
index b3fd3cb37..1fab70858 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/defaultheaders.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/defaultheaders.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class DefaultHeadersMiddleware(object):
 
     def spider_opened(self, spider):
         self._default_headers[spider] = dict(self.global_default_headers,
-                **getattr(spider, 'default_headers', {}))
+                **getattr(spider, 'default_request_headers', {}))
 
     def spider_closed(self, spider):
         self._default_headers.pop(spider)
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_defaultheaders.py b/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_defaultheaders.py
index 129495dc7..d24882d02 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_defaultheaders.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_defaultheaders.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ class TestDefaultHeadersMiddleware(TestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         self.spider = BaseSpider('foo')
         self.mw = DefaultHeadersMiddleware()
-        self.default_headers = dict([(k, [v]) for k, v in \
+        self.default_request_headers = dict([(k, [v]) for k, v in \
             settings.get('DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS').iteritems()])
 
     def test_process_request(self):
@@ -19,21 +19,21 @@ class TestDefaultHeadersMiddleware(TestCase):
         self.mw.spider_opened(self.spider)
         self.mw.process_request(req, self.spider)
         self.mw.spider_closed(self.spider)
-        self.assertEquals(req.headers, self.default_headers)
+        self.assertEquals(req.headers, self.default_request_headers)
 
-    def test_spider_default_headers(self):
+    def test_spider_default_request_headers(self):
         spider_headers = {'Unexistant-Header': ['value']}
         # override one of the global default headers by spider
-        if self.default_headers:
-            k = set(self.default_headers).pop()
+        if self.default_request_headers:
+            k = set(self.default_request_headers).pop()
             spider_headers[k] = ['__newvalue__']
-        self.spider.default_headers = spider_headers
+        self.spider.default_request_headers = spider_headers
 
         req = Request('http://www.scrapytest.org')
         self.mw.spider_opened(self.spider)
         self.mw.process_request(req, self.spider)
         self.mw.spider_closed(self.spider)
-        self.assertEquals(req.headers, dict(self.default_headers, **spider_headers))
+        self.assertEquals(req.headers, dict(self.default_request_headers, **spider_headers))
 
     def test_update_headers(self):
         headers = {'Accept-Language': ['es'], 'Test-Header': ['test']}
@@ -43,6 +43,6 @@ class TestDefaultHeadersMiddleware(TestCase):
         self.mw.spider_opened(self.spider)
         self.mw.process_request(req, self.spider)
         self.mw.spider_closed(self.spider)
-        self.default_headers.update(headers)
-        self.assertEquals(req.headers, self.default_headers)
+        self.default_request_headers.update(headers)
+        self.assertEquals(req.headers, self.default_request_headers)