THE BLIND-WORM. 



97 



wastes. They are timid, harmless creatures, retiring into holes, and 

 concealing themselves in moss at the foot of trees, to hide them- 

 selves from observation. They feed upon worms, insects, and the 

 smaller molluscs. Although perfectly harmless, country people 

 are strongly prejudiced against them, believing their bite to be a 

 deadly poison. This animal is extremely brittle. Laurenti and 

 others assert that when captured it throws itself into a position of 

 such rigidity that it sometimes breaks in two, and that a smart blow 

 of a switch will at any time divide it. 



Fig. 25. Blind-worm. 



IK 1 . 



There are little-known species of Anguis in India and South 

 Africa, which are at least provisionally so considered, and certainly 

 do not differ essentially ; and next we come to forms in which the 

 limbs are successively more developed. Such are the Ophiodes 

 striatus of Brazil, which has two short, flattened, undivided, and 

 one-pointed limbs, corresponding to the usual- Jiind pair; the 

 Brachymdes bonita of the Philippines, in which there are two 

 of short and rudimentary limbs, the fore bearing two minute c] 

 while the hind are undivided; Venira bicolor, of the same archipela, 

 has very short limbs, the fore and hind being placed distantly apart, 

 but in this genus all have five distinct toes ; Chiameka lineata, from 

 78 



