42 ' BRITISH LIZARDS 



adder.^ I captured this specimen under a large flat 

 stone in an old disused quarry near the Monnow Valley 

 in Herefordshire. It is now preserved in the Zoological 

 Museum at Edinburgh University. Apart from the 

 adder, man is the most persistent persecutor of the 

 unfortunate slow-worm, and the fact that this harm- 

 less lizard does not shun the abodes of men as some 

 reptiles do, tends to bring about its own destruction. 

 Slow-worms are found more abundantly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of villages and farms where there are gardens 

 and walls and quarries than in bleak open moors, and 

 it is therefore the more necessary that the utility 

 and harmlessness of the creature should be widely 

 recognised. Hedgerows they delight in, and a country 

 lane near a village is more likely to reward the 

 searcher than a lonely wood off the road. Unfor- 

 tunately this very habit is their greatest danger. 



Disposition. — As far as the character of the slow- 

 worm is concerned it may challenge comparison with 

 almost any animal, and is certainly more docile than 

 most other reptiles. Though extremely timid at first, 

 it rapidly becomes familiar with its owner, and will 

 feed from the hand after a short time in the vivarium. 

 But — and this is a point that many observers appear 

 to have overlooked — slow-worms have their individual 

 idiosyncrasies like other creatures, and some of them 

 will exhibit a great tendency to bite. Even when 

 they do, the small size of the teeth renders the bite 



^ British S'erjjcnts, p. 19. 



