OF SELBORNE. 



As to the blind worm (Anguis fragilis, so called 

 because it snaps in sunder with a small blow), I have 

 found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous 9 . 



A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for 

 some good hints) killed and opened a female viper 

 about the 27th of May : he found her filled with a chain 

 of eleven eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ; 

 but none of them were advanced so far towards a state 

 of maturity as to contain any rudiments of young. 

 Though they are oviparous, yet they are viviparous 

 also, hatching their young within their bellies, and then 

 bringing them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of 

 eggs every summer in my melon beds, in spite of all 

 that my people can do to prevent them ; which eggs do 

 not hatch till the spring following, as I have often 

 experienced. Several intelligent folks assure me that 

 they have seen the viper open her mouth and admit her 



9 A blind-worm, that I kept alive for nine weeks, would, when touched, 

 turn and bite, although not very sharply: its bite was not sufficient to 

 draw blood, but it always retained its hold until released. It drank 

 sparingly of milk, raising the head when drinking. It fed upon the little 

 white slug (Umax agrestis, LINN.) so common in fields and gardens, 

 eating six or seven of them one after the other ; but it did not eat every 

 day. It invariably took them in one position. Elevating its head slowly 

 above its victim, it would suddenly seize the slug by the middle, in the 

 same manner that a ferret or dog will generally take a rat by the loins ; it 

 would then hold it thus sometimes for more than a minute, when it would 

 pass its prey through its jaws, and swallow the slug head foremost. It 

 refused the larger slugs, and would not touch either young frogs or mice. 

 Snakes kept in the same cage took both frogs and mice. The blind-worm 

 avoided the water : the snakes, on the contrary, coiled themselves in 

 the pan containing water, which was put into the cage, and appeared to 

 delight in it. The blind-worm was a remarkably fine one, measuring 

 fifteen inches in length. It cast its slough while in my keeping. The 

 skin came off in separate pieces, the largest of which was two inches in 

 length ; splitting first on the belly, and the peeling from the head being 

 completed the last. After the skin was cast the colour of the reptile was 

 much lighter than it had before been. 



I had for the first time, while this blind-worm was in my custody, an 

 opportunity of witnessing the power which slugs have of suspending 

 themselves by a thread. They availed themselves of it in escaping from 

 the cage of the reptile. The cage was on a shelf four feet six inches 

 from the floor, and, with the aid of the glutinous filament which they 

 exuded, the slugs lowered themselves from it to the ground. G. D. 



