64 TAME BLIND-WORMS. 



round the fractured portion, forming a kind of hollow into which the broken end of the tail 

 can be slipped. 



According to popular notions, the Blind-worm is a terribly poisonous creature, and by 

 many persons is thought to be even more venomous than the viper, whereas it is perfectly 

 harmless, having neither the will nor the ability to bite, its temper being as quiet as its move- 

 ments, and its teeth as innocuous as its jaws are weak. I fancy that the origin of this opinion 

 may be found in the habit of constantly thrusting out its broad, black, flat tongue with its 

 slightly forked tip ; for the popular mind considers the tongue to be the sting, imagining it to 

 be both the source of the venom, and the weapon by which it is injected into the body, and so 

 logically classes all creatures with forked tongues under the common denomination of poison- 

 ous animals. 



It is said that this reptile will bite when handled, but that its minute teeth and feeble jaws 

 can make no impression upon the skin ; and also that when it has thus fastened on the hand 

 of its captor, it will not release its hold unless its jaws be forced open. For my own part, and 

 I have handled very many of these reptiles, I never knew them attempt to bite, or even to 

 assume a threatening attitude. They will suddenly curl themselves up tightly, and snap off 

 their tails, but to use their jaws in self-defence is an idea that seldom appears to occur 

 to them. 



The pertinacity with which the notion of the Blind- worm's venomous properties is 

 implanted in the rustic mind is really absurd. During the summer of this year, I passed 

 some little time in a forest, and having gone round to the farms in the neighborhood, as 

 distances of several miles are euphuistically called, begged to have all reptiles brought to me 

 that were discovered during the haymaking. In consequence, the supply of vipers and snakes 

 was very large, and on one occasion a laborer came to the house, bare-headed, his red face 

 beaming with delight, and his manner evincing a proud consciousness of deserving valor. 

 Between his hands he held his felt hat tightly crumpled together, and within the hat was dis- 

 covered, after much careful manoeuvring, the head of a Blind-worm emerging from one of 

 its folds. 



As I put out my hand to remove the creature, the man fairly screamed with horror, and 

 even when I took it in my hand, and allowed it to play its tongue over the fingers, he could 

 not believe that it was not poisonous. No argument could persuade that worthy man that 

 the reptile was harmless, and nothing could induce him to lay a linger upon it ; the prominent 

 idea in his mind being, evidently, not that the Blind-worm had no poison, but that I was 

 poison-proof. To add to his alarm, the creature had snapped off its tail during the rough 

 handling to which it had been subjected a proceeding which, by his peculiar process of 

 reasoning only corroborated its venomous properties. 



In its wild state the Blind-worm feeds mostly on slugs, but will also eat worms and various 

 insects. Some persons assert that it devours mice and reptiles ; but that it should do so is a 

 physical impossibility, owing to the very small dimensions of the mouth and the structure of 

 the jaw, the bones of which are firmly knitted together, and cannot be separated while the 

 prey is being swallowed, as is the case with the snakes. 



In captivity it seems to reject almost any food, except slugs ; but these molluscs it will 

 eat quite freely. I have kept a specimen in my possession for about four months, which has 

 proved a very interesting creature. After keeping it for a fortnight, I procured six or seven 

 white garden slugs, and placed them in the glass vessel, together with the Blind-worm. 



The reptile instantly saw its prey, but did not move from its place, merely following with 

 a slow movement of the head the course of one of the slugs that crawled within an inch or two 

 of its nose. Presently it raised its head very deliberately, and hovered over the slug as it 

 glided along, and, after following it for an inch or two, quickly opened its mouth to the full 

 extent, lowered its head, and grasped the slug just behind the head, squeezing it with some 

 force, and causing a great commotion among the muscles of the foot. 



Presently it relaxed its hold a little, again opened its mouth and took a.fresh grasp, and 

 after three or four of these movements, it contrived how, I cannot comprehend, though I 

 have watched the creature over and over again to get the head of the slug down its throat. 



