THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



tiny scales being pressed back, till what was perhaps a fourth of the body, 

 was thus compressed into a very small compass indeed. 



The Blindworm in common with most reptiles, possesses a very unenviable 

 reputation, to which, as is usually the case, it has no claim whatever. Some 

 country people say that it will destroy cattle by biting, and all accuse it of 

 being " deadly poisonous." How this can be, seeing that the reptile has no 

 poison fangs, and only a very small mouth, the labourer does not stop to 

 inquire ; he has been told by his father before him that the Blindworm is 

 poisonous, and that is sufficient for him. Though it has a small mouth, it 

 has plenty of teeth, which, however, are so minute, that the creature, if willing, 

 could only inflict a very trifling injury. The Blindworm has other enemies 

 beside the country folks, being often devoured by the beautiful Kestrel 

 and other hawks. 



Early in May, 1871, walking through a hazel coppice, and engaged in the 

 pursuit of the lovely Azure Blue Butterfly [L. argiolus), I was attracted by 

 a continual rustling among the dead and dried leaves a few feet from the 

 path, and going up to see the cause of the commotion, I found two Blind- 

 worms engaged in a lively encounter, which might possibly have been 

 courting, but which certainly looked something more serious, inasmuch as 

 one of the reptiles had the neck of the other in its mouth, and was shaking 

 it most viciously, to which of course an objection was raised, and the two 

 were twisting, twirling, and thrashing the ground and herbage in the most 

 curious fashion. They did not desist on my approach, both being evidently 

 in earnest, and continued struggling and shaking each other with great 

 pertinacity. Having made several attempts to separate them with my stick 

 I at length succeeded, and then they made little attempt to escape, stowing 

 themselves away under the dead leaves. I was solemnly assured by a 

 respectable-looking man who came up at the time that these "Slowworms" 

 were most *' deadly poisonous." 



The Blindworm, like the Common Lizard is ovo-viparous. The young 

 are from six to twelve in number, and are brought forth from May to August, 

 and sometimes as late as the first week in October. The Rev. J. G. Wood 

 describes some young Blindworms he had as being " very pretty, yellow above, 

 black below, and might easily be mistaken for young vipers, especially as 

 they have wide heads, a black streak along the spine, and a black V on the 

 top of the head/' Some young Blindworms I found early in the month of 

 May, last year, were slender in form, and of a creamy -yellow colour, with a 

 brown stripe along the side. Another one found in June was grey-brown on 

 the back and sides, and whitish on the belly, with what appeared to be a 

 bluish mark or stripe running through the middle of the latter. The Blind- 



