THE SLOW WORM. 309 



incalculably in favour of innocency and harmless- 

 ness. But of all the guiltless beings which are met 

 with, we have none less chargeable with criminality 

 than the poor slow-worm (anguisfragilis), yet none 

 are more frequently destroyed than it included as 

 it is in the general and deep-rooted prejudice attach- 

 ed to the serpent race. The viper and the snake, 

 though they experience no mercy, escape often by 

 activity of action ; but this creature, from the slow- 

 ness of his movements, falls a more frequent victim. 

 We call it a ' blind worm,' possibly from the suppo- 

 sition that as it makes little effort to escape, it sees 

 badly ; but its eyes, though rather small, are 

 clear and lively, with no apparent defect of vision. 

 The natural habits of the slow- worm are obscure ; 

 and living in the deepest foliage, and the roughest 

 banks, he is generally secreted from observation ; 

 but loving warmth, like all his race, he creeps half 

 torpid from his hole, to bask in spring time in the 

 rays of the sun, and is, if seen, inevitably destroyed. 

 Exquisitely formed as all these gliding creatures 

 are, for rapid and uninterrupted transit through 

 herbage and such impediments, it is yet impossible 

 to examine a slow-worm without admiration at 

 the peculiar neatness and fineness of the scales with 

 which it is covered. All separate as they are, yet 

 they lap over, and close upon each other with such 

 exquisite exactitude, as to appear only as faint 

 markings upon the skin, requiring a magnifier to 



