'lizzie: 475 



standing on the tip of its tail, and supporting itself against 

 the side of the jar by the abdominal scales creating a 

 vacuum, Mike the pedal scales of a common house lizard;' 

 it was not a slow-worm, therefore. He felt quite satisfied 

 about this adaptation of the scutae, a mode which, in de- 

 scribing the larger snakes climbing up their glass cages, I 

 called 'compressure,' p. 215. Mr. Hutchinson does not tell 

 us, either, how much earth or rubbish covered the floor of 

 the jar, though there must have been an inch or more, to 

 enable a snake of nine inches to raise its head over a ledge 

 ten inches high. Lizzie not having ventral scales to help 

 her, used her tail only as a support, then nicely maintaining 

 the perpendicular. Many times she failed in achieving 

 success, but she did achieve it, and grew so enterprising in 

 consequence that I shall now confine my story to her. At 

 first she lived in a box, the top of which she could easily 

 look over, and she was occasionally permitted to get out 

 and ramble amon^: some ferns on the same table. Some- 

 times this box was also covered v/ith a muslin, having elastic 

 hemmed into it, and she soon discovered that this with 

 persevering attempts could be raised. The use of the tail 

 was here remarkable. With it she maintained her ' stand,' 

 so to speak, while with her head and the forepart of her 

 body she tried to loosen the net ; using persistent and 

 powerful efforts to lift it, by repeatedly tossing back her 

 head. She acted in every way as if determined not to be 

 baffled, and with an apparent intention or reflection that 

 was, without doubt, the result of experience. In higher 

 creatures this application of force to produce a certain result 

 would be pronounced 'intelligence.' In the little slow-worm 



