74 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



This family includes types with well-developed limbs, 

 with reduced limbs, or with no limbs, although vestiges 

 of the pectoral and hip girdles are always present. It 

 includes two divisions : one in which the body is completely 

 surrounded with dermal ossifications, as in our Slow-worm, 

 the other in which a well-developed fold extends along 

 each side of the body, separating the dorsal from the ventral 

 cuirass. This fold is of use in permitting an increase in 

 the calibre of the body, in cases where the dermal armour 

 is particularly rigid, thus allowing for the distension 

 necessitated by voluminous food, or the development of 

 the ova. 



To the first group belongs the genus Anguis, of which 

 our British Slow- worm, or Blind-worm, Anguis fragilis, 

 is the sole representative. This snake-like lizard grows to 

 a length of eighteen inches, which is, however, rather 

 exceptional. Although provided with long, sharp teeth, 

 not unlike those of snakes, it is a very gentle creature, 

 never attempting to bite, its chief means of defence residing 

 in the very brittle, long tail, which often remains in the 

 hand of its captor. This harmless and very useful creature, 

 feeding mainly on slugs, is ruthlessly killed by the ignorant, 

 who often regard it as a blind snake, hence its English name 

 of Blind-worm, or the German Blindschleiche. Its eyes, 

 however, though small, are well developed and bright, and 

 furnished, as in most lizards, with movable lids, and there- 

 fore closed at death, thus contrasting with the large, staring 

 eyes of a dead snake, and accounting for the popular fallacy 

 as to its blindness. Unlike most lizards, and owing no 

 doubt to the nature of its food, the Slow-worm shows a 

 predilection for dampness, crawling about among the dew. 



