34 BRITISH LIZARDS 



The black belly gives place to a mottled grey colour. 

 The body may be grey or brownish, or the bright 

 polished copper colour already mentioned. The old 

 specimens will be found sometimes mottled with blue. 

 No hard - and - fast rules can be laid down, as the 

 individuals vary so much. 



Food. — Despite the various diets ascribed to the 

 slow-worm, I have no hesitation in saying that the 

 favourite and staple food consists of slugs, the common 

 small grey garden slug for choice. The fact that the 

 lizard has a non-distensible jaw of course precludes its 

 swallowing large articles of diet which a snake can 

 manage. The very young slow-worms are said to 

 begin with small spiders and delicate insects,^ but it is 

 very astonishing how soon they, too, tackle the slugs. 

 Very few days after birth this may be seen. Then 

 earth-worms are said to be commonly eaten. My own 

 invariable experience has been that a slow-worm will 

 never eat earth-worms if it can get slugs, but they 

 will eat them if nothing else is available. It should 

 always be remembered that the food of a reptile, or 

 other animal in captivity, is what the owner chooses to 

 give it, and it by no means follows that it corresponds 

 to its natural diet. Of course it should do so, and no 

 person should keep an animal in captivity unless it 

 can be fed on a diet very nearly that in its wild state. 

 Slow-worms will eat worms in captivity, and insects, 

 and possibly many other invertebrate creatures, but the 



^ Gadow, Amjjhibia and Reptiles, p. 540. 



