THE SLOW-WORM, ANGUIS FRAGILIS 39 



sized slugs the clay after they were born. One of the 

 young, on being handled, disgorged a slug quite half 

 an inch in length which it had swallowed. 



" I took several photographs of the mothers and the 

 young together soon after birth, but on account of the 

 extreme activity of the young ones they did not turn 

 out as successful as I hoped. The most satisfactory 

 perhaps is the one reproduced, but the incessant 

 wriggling was most trying to the patience of the 

 photographer." 



This valuable note is of interest not only from the 

 point of view of the size and number of young, but 

 also as showing the short time which elapses before 

 the young ones take to the favourite diet of their 

 elders. The probability is that these were somewhat 

 larger than the average young ones, and it is a fact 

 that the slow -worms in Herefordshire, where this 

 observation was made, are a large race. As a rule it 

 is some six weeks before they attain the size of 3 inches. 

 The following spring they will be found to be 5 or 6 

 inches long, and it takes four or five years for them to 

 reach maturity. 



Sloughing. — Like other reptiles of the lizard or snake 

 groups, the slow-worm casts its slough periodically. I 

 have described this process at length elsewhere,^ and it 

 will be sufficient here to state that the slough may be 

 cast intact as one piece, or in several or many pieces. 

 The slough is exceedingly delicate and therefore torn 



1 British Serpents, chap. vi. 



