TAME BLIND-WORMS. 65 



The process of swallowing was then very easy, and, after a few more efforts, the whole of the 

 mollusc had disappeared. After resting for a few minutes, it attacked another slug precisely 

 in the same manner ; but I have seldom seen it eat more than two or three at one meal. By 

 degrees it caught and ate all the slugs, and it will finish a dozen in a week or ten days. 



After a short time my Blind-worm unexpectedly became the mother of a numerous 

 progeny, nine little Blind-worms having made their appearance in the world during the night. 

 They were remarkably pretty little creatures, and so unlike their parent, that few persons 

 would attribute them to the same species. They are much more serpentine in their general 

 aspect, their heads being considerably wider than their necks, whereas in the adult the head 

 and neck are as nearly as possible of the same width. 



Their color is shining creamy-yellow above, and jetty -black below, the line of demarcation 

 running along the flanks, and being very sharply defined. Along the back runs a narrow 

 black line, which upon the head is expanded, and then divides so as to form a letter Y. Just 

 above the nose is another forked, black mark, looking like an inverted V, and both these 

 letters have a notable circular enlargement at the angle. As the creature grows, the V mark 

 becomes gradually uncertain, and finally disappears ; but the black line down the back, and 

 its Y-like termination, retain their position through life, though they are not so conspicuous 

 as in the young, owing to the darker coloring of the surface. 



How these little things feed I cannot make out. Though the little creatures born in my 

 house had lived for about five v-eeks, had grown considerably, and had always been very 

 lively, they had taken no food so far as I could discover. For the first three weeks of their 

 life, they lived in a glass jar closed at the top, and with an inch or so of dry earth at the bot- 

 tom, in which there could be no nourishment. A little milk was poured on the mould now 

 and then ; and they perhaps may have licked the moistened earth, and so have obtained some 

 little nourishment, though they were never seen to do so, and indeed appeared perfectly 

 indifferent to the milk. 



\Yhen I introduced the slugs, the odd little reptiles acted just as their mother was doing, 

 followed the slugs about with their heads, hovered over them, made believe to eat them, and 

 then were quietly walked over by their intended prey, which, being nearly twice as big as 

 themselves, proceeded on its course without paying the least regard to the tiny reptiles, whose 

 bodies were not larger than ordinary knitting-needles, and easily glided over them, or put 

 them to ignominious flight. 



After they had been in the jar for some time, I fitted up an old aquarium in a manner 

 intended to imitate as far as possible their natural home, building a bank of earth and stones 

 at either end, laying turf in the middle, and planting ferns upon the banks, with moss round 

 their roots. They enjoyed the change very greatly, immediately proceeded to burrow in all 

 directions through the earth and among the stones, until they established a whole series of 

 tunnels through which they can glide at will, and seem to take great pleasure in permeating 

 their establishment at all hours, especially delighting in pushing their way through the moss 

 and then retreating into their burrows. 



On a cold day they bury themselves below the mould ; but the first gleam of sunshine 

 that plays among the green fern-leaves brings them from their recesses, and causes them to 

 glide about the moss and turf most merrily. Sometimes, when they are coiled asleep within 

 their home, their bodies are pressed against the glass, and it is curious to see how immovable 

 they will lie, in spite of tapping the glass, but how soon they wake up and brisk they become 

 when the glass is warmed. Even a few warm breaths upon the glass suffice to awake them. 



I think that I have discovered another kind of subsistence for the young ; but that has 

 only been possible since they have been placed in the aquarium, or rather, the fernery, as it is 

 now. Sundry very minute insects of the dipterous order may be seen flitting about within the 

 glass, probably having been introduced with the turf and ferns ; and it is possible that the 

 young Blind-worms may contrive to catch and eat these creatures, and derive some nutriment 

 from them, in spite of their diminutive size. 



When wild, the Blind-worm generally retires to its winter-quarters towards the end of 

 August, or even sooner, should the weather be chilly. The localities which it chooses for this 



VOL. m.-9. 



