474 SNAKES. 



a stand there was a considerable distance between the 

 edge and the table. A slow-worm's progression is truly 

 marvellous. In this little creature one can detect no action 

 of the ribs ; they are too fine and too close. Its scaly 

 armour, moreover, is smooth and firm ; and as for ventral 

 scutai to ' afford hold,' it has none. Yet with ease it draws 

 itself over that polished rim, as it draws itself up and over 

 your finger, v/hen suspended by the mere tip of its tail. 



Soon the slow-worms accomplished this feat so know- 

 ingly that it became necessary to cover them over, which 

 was done with gauze having a strong elastic cord hemmed 

 into it. They practised their climbing powers all the same, 

 and though not able to get over the edge, tried and pushed 

 hard enough to stretch the gauze considerably ; so that, 

 unless well pulled down, it lay only loosely and bagging 

 over the top. 



Judge, then, of my amazement one day to find Lizzie 

 outside the glass, resting contentedly in the loose fold round 

 the edge above the elastic. The little creature had absolutely 

 got over the edge, but the tightness of the elastic baffling 

 the outside descent, there it lay. 



In N'ature, vol. xx. p. 529, Mr. Hutchinson describes and 

 illustrates an exactly similar feat accomplished by a ' little 

 snake ' nine inches long. It was put in a glass jar ten inches 

 high, having also for a cover a bit of coarse muslin secured 

 by an elastic band. The reptile was missing, the muslin and 

 the band were intact, when, after a mysterious surprise and 

 search, the little snake was found under the rim of the jar 

 inside the muslin. The writer does not say what snake 

 it was, but he afterwards observed it 'ascending easily,' 



