APRIL DAYS 61 



The age to which saurians may attain does not 

 appear to have been generally ascertained ; and in 

 this matter the influence of captivity must not be 

 overlooked. It is, of course, difficult to watch the 

 growth of wild reptiles, but I have had some easy 

 opportunities of so doing. In 1891 I liberated in 

 a very suitable spot in the garden a dozen young 

 blindworms, not a week old. They were con- 

 stantly to be found under a blue tile that lay 

 exposed to the sun, but surrounded with ferns and 

 ivy. Here one could easily inspect them. When 

 a year old, the five or six of them that remained 

 had increased to twice their size at birth. A year 

 later there were only three or four, about seven 

 inches long, remaining under the tile ; and at the 

 end of the third year a couple were still there, 

 and these were from nine to ten inches in length. 

 I never saw an adult blindworm near this spot, 

 which was somewhat isolated ; and I believe that 

 all of those just mentioned were born in 1891. 

 The common lizard, some hundreds of which 

 I have closely observed, seems to attain its 

 full size and maturity in the space of three 

 years, though its head seems afterwards to cer- 



