46 



FRAGILE SERPENT. Class III. 



worms, and mice, and considering the smallness 

 of the neck, it is amazing how large an animal 

 it will swallow. It is oviparous ; lays its eggs 

 in dunghills, and in hot-beds, whose heat, aided 

 by that of the sun, promotes the exclusion of 

 the young. During winter it lies torpid in 

 banks of hedges, and under the roots of old 

 trees. 



3. Fragile. The Blind-worm, or slow- 

 worm, Ccecilia Typhline 

 Grsecis. Raii Syn. quad. 

 289. Grew's Mus. 48. 



Caecilia anglica cinerea squa- 

 mis parvis mollibus, com- 

 pactis. Pet. Mus. xvii. No. 

 102. 



Long Cripple. Borlase Cornw. 

 284. tab. 28. 



Anguis fragilis. Lin. Syst. 

 392. Gm. Lin. 1 122. 



A. fragilis squamis abdominis 



caudasque 135. 

 Ormsla, Koppar-Orm. Faun. 



Suec. 289- 

 Blind-worm. Br. Zool. 4to. 



iii. 33. 

 Laur. Amph. 68. tab. 5. fig. 



2. 

 L'Orvet. De la Cepede. Hist. 



des Serpents, ii. 430. tab. 



19. fig- 1- 



Descrip- J_HE usual length of this species is eleven 



TIOU. . . 



inches ; the irides are red ; the head small ; the 

 neck still more slender; from that part the 

 body suddenly enlarges, and continues of an 

 equal bulk to the tail, which ends quite blunt. 

 The color of the back is cinereous, marked 



