THE BLINDWORM. 99 



Description. 



and digest their meal in safety. The smallest 

 effort then will destroy them ; they scarcely can 

 make any resistance; and, equally unqualified 

 for flight or opposition, even the naked Indians 

 do not fear to assail them. But it is otherwise 

 when this sleeping interval of digestion is over ; 

 they then issue, with famished appetites, from 

 their retreats, and with accumulated terrors, 

 while every animal of the forest flies from their 

 presence. They never bite, however, from any 

 other impulse than that of hunger, and when 

 they do their bites are destitute of venom. 



THE BLINDWORM, DOUBLE- 

 HEADED SERPENT, fa. 



THE blindworm, though it has a formidable 

 appearance, is a harmless reptile. The eyes are 

 red, the head small, the neck still more slender; 

 from that part the body increases suddenly, and 

 continues of an equal bulk to the tail, which 

 ends quite blunt. The color of the back is cine- 

 reous, marked with very small lines, composed 

 of minute black specks. The motion of this 

 serpent is slow, from which, and from the small- 

 ness of the eyes, are derived its name ; some 

 calling it the slow, and some the blindworm. 

 Its general length is eleven inches. Like all the 

 rest of the kind in our climates, they lie torpid 

 during winter, and are sometimes found in vast 



