NATURAL HISTORY OF HARTING. 297 



among the intricacies of which it seemed to have no 

 difficulty in making its way for some distance before 

 it reached the ground. The Blind Worm, or Slow 

 Worm (Anguis fragilis\ is another of our lizards, 

 although its undeveloped legs are only to be found on 

 dissection. It is so well known that any description 

 of it will be unnecessary ; but one feature in its history 

 is so remarkable that a brief allusion to it may not be 

 out of place even in this short notice. If it be rudely 

 disturbed, or any attempt made to capture it, it 

 becomes as rigid and unyielding as a glass rod ; and 

 in this state often astonishes the would-be captor by 

 voluntarily snapping off its tail. No sooner has it 

 performed this extraordinary feat, than the rejected 

 portion assumes an unwonted degree of energy and live- 

 liness, jumping, twisting, and coiling about as if in a 

 state of convulsive agony, while the head and body of 

 the animal quietly glide away to a place of security. The 

 loss of the tail, however, appears to be only temporary, 

 as this curious animal is said to possess the property 

 of partially reproducing it. Examples of a similar 

 reproduction of lost members are not uncommon 

 among the Crustacea : lobsters and crabs, for instance, 

 are often brought to our tables with one claw con- 

 siderably larger than the other ; in all such specimens 

 the least of the two claws is a second edition of a 

 former one ; but reproduced members never attain to 

 the size of those which they have replaced.* 



c " It appears that voluntary decaudation (if we may coin the 

 word), followed by gradual reparation of the injury, is occasionally 

 practised by the common lizard also, but although, reasoning 

 from analogy, we might have suspected the fact, we have handled 

 many specimens of this reptile without meeting with an instance 

 of it ; and we did not know that it really was so until we read the 

 following in " Hardwicke's Science Gossip" (Vol. II., p. 79) : 

 " If caught by the tail these reptiles (common lizards) snap that 

 appendage off, deeming it better to lose their tail than their life. 

 Many other species do the same. If broken off the tail begins to 

 grow again in exactly two months, and is complete in another 

 month, unless broken off very late in the season, in which case it 

 does not grow again till the spring." 



