ANACONDA AND AN GUIS FRAGILIS. 461 



hibernation was approaching, Aiigiiis fragilis had exhibited 

 an errant disposition, and I had attributed it to a natural 

 instinct to seek a winter retreat; but in the present case 

 only these two tried to get away, and in both there appeared 

 to be a similar motive. 



On one occasion, late in October, Blackie could not be 

 found for several days, and was even given up for lost, 

 when, on removing a number of books that, when unpacked, 

 had been temporarily stacked against the wall, there lay 

 the little black slow-worm in so narrow a space between a 

 quarto volume and the wall that it seemed impossible 

 she could have got there. Strange to tell, the poor little 

 thing no longer struggled to get away, but seemed even 

 glad to be lifted and fondled and restored to her moss. 



On the 2nd November, some frosty days having arrived, 

 and no more worms and flies being procurable, I thought 

 it time to put them away for their winter sleep, having been 

 so instructed by Mr. Green, the taxidermist at Bournemouth, 

 of whom I had purchased several. So, having dismissed 

 all idea of an increase in their numbers, I prepared a large 

 deep jar and furnished it with soft hay, moss, and sand, 

 enough for them to burrow into, intending to consign it 

 and them to an attic. 



The first thing on the morning of the cold ioggy 3rd of 

 November 1879, I went as usual to examine the box and 

 its inmates — as yet in my sitting-room. Lifting the moss 

 to count heads, I saw what on the first glance in that 

 half daylight seemed to be a small tender snail, apparently 

 injured in some way, and crawling extended in a wonderfully 

 thin line from its shell. What presented a snail to my 



