APRIL DAYS 57 



by whose attack unfelt death will overcome the 

 sleeping reptile. 



At about the time when the lizard is aroused by 

 the touch of spring, or it may be later, when the 

 first returned warblers have begun to carol in 

 orchard and thicket, the child, tired of gathering 

 wildflowers, and resting on some rough bank, may 

 be scared to discover close at hand a glistening, 

 snake-like animal traversing the herbage. The 

 child screams and hastens off, to describe, with 

 pardonable exaggeration, the dreadful incident. 

 Yet the cause of this excitement is one of the 

 most harmless and useful of small animals ; it is 

 the blindworm, a kind of lizard whose legs are 

 so rudimentary as to be wholly concealed beneath 

 the skin of the body, and whose bite is fatal 

 only to slug and earthworm. Of its inability to 

 harm people I can speak with conviction, for on 

 several occasions a large blindworm has bitten 

 my hand so determinedly as to draw blood from 

 numerous punctures, but without the slightest con- 

 sequent inflammation or irritation. 



Eager for sunshine, the blindworm is attracted 



