60 NATURES STORY OF THE YEAR 



when caged for a time, it gave birth to a total 

 number of twenty-two young ones. Year by year, 

 when spring arrived, the old blindworm might be 

 seen in her favourite spot, where sometimes also 

 she was fed by hand. But her life was not with- 

 out dangers. Twice I found her drowning in a 

 trough in a corner of the fernery ; and another old 

 female blindworm attacked her savagely. The 

 two reptiles, in the course of a long struggle, had 

 pressed aside the surrounding plant-leaves, and lay 

 in a smooth hollow, the head of the old one 

 being firmly held within the jaws of what seemed 

 a more muscular assailant. I once found on some 

 rough grassland two other blindworms engaged in 

 a similar contest, which seemed to have been con- 

 tinued for a long while. The blindworm of the 

 fernery met with an accident and lost her tail, 

 probably by the attack of a mouse. Throughout 

 the warmer months of 1894 she was still visible 

 in her accustomed nook ; but the spring of 1 895 

 did not bring her forth. Probably the severe cold 

 of the previous winter, or the attack of some 

 mouse, had proved fatal. When last seen she 

 could not have been less than twenty years old. 



