TAME BLIND-WORMS . 
65 
The process of swallowing was then very easy, and, after a few more efforts, the whole of the 
mollusc had disappeared. After resting for a few minutes, it attacked another sing precisely 
in the same manner ; but I have seldom seen it eat more than two or three at one meal. By 
degrees it caught and ate all the slugs, and it will finish a dozen in a week or ten days. 
After a short time my Blind-worm unexpectedly became the mother of a numerous 
progeny, nine little Blind-worms having made their appearance in the world during the night. 
They were remarkably pretty little creatures, and so unlike their parent, that few persons 
would attribute them to the same species. They are much more serpentine in their general 
aspect, their heads being considerably wider than their necks, whereas in the adult the head 
and neck are as nearly as possible of the same width. 
Their color is shining creamy-yellow above, and jetty-black below, the line of demarcation 
running along the flanks, and being very sharply defined. Along the back runs a narrow 
black line, which upon the head is expanded, and then divides so as to form a letter Y. Just 
above the nose is another forked, black mark, looking like an inverted Y, and both these 
letters have a notable circular enlargement at the angle. As the creature grows, the Y mark 
becomes gradually uncertain, and finally disappears ; but the black line down the back, and 
its Y-like termination, retain their position through life, though they are not so conspicuous 
as in the young, owing to the darker coloring of the surface. 
How these little things feed I cannot make out. Though the little creatures born in my 
house had lived for about five weeks, had grown considerably, and had always been very 
lively, they had taken no food so far as I could discover. For the first three weeks of their 
life, they lived in a glass jar closed at the top, and with an inch or so of dry earth at the bot- 
tom, in which there could be no nourishment. A little milk was poured on the mould now 
and then ; and they perhaps may have licked the moistened earth, and so have obtained some 
little nourishment, though they were never seen to do so, and indeed appeared perfectly 
indifferent to the milk. 
When I introduced the slugs, the odd little reptiles acted just as their mother was doing, 
followed the slugs about with their heads, hovered over them, made believe to eat them, and 
then were quietly walked over by their intended prey, which, being nearly twice as big as 
themselves, proceeded on its course without paying the least regard to the tiny reptiles, whose 
bodies were not larger than ordinary knitting-needles, and easily glided over them, or put 
them to ignominious flight. 
After they had been in the jar for some time, I fitted up an old aquarium in a manner 
intended to imitate as far as possible their natural home, building a bank of earth and stones 
at either end, laying turf in the middle, and planting ferns upon the banks, with moss round 
their roots. They enjoyed the change very greatly, immediately proceeded to burrow in all 
directions through the earth and among the stones, until they established a whole series of 
tunnels through which they can glide at will, and seem to take great pleasure in permeating 
their establishment at all hours, especially delighting in pushing their way through the moss 
and then retreating into their burrows. 
On a cold day they bury themselves below the mould ; but the first gleam of sunshine 
that plays among the green fern-leaves brings them from their recesses, and causes them to 
glide about the moss and turf most merrily. Sometimes, when they are coiled asleep within 
their home, their bodies are pressed against the glass, and it is curious to see how immovable 
they will lie, in spite of tapping the glass, but how soon they wake up and brisk they become 
when the glass is warmed. Even a few warm breaths upon the glass suffice to awake them. 
I think that I have discovered another kind of subsistence for the young ; but that has 
only been possible since they have been placed in the aquarium, or rather, the fernery, as it is 
now. Sundry very minute insects of the dipterous order may be seen flitting about within the 
glass, probably having been introduced with the turf and ferns ; and it is possible that the 
young Blind- worms may contrive to catch and eat these creatures, and derive some nutriment 
from them, in spite of their diminutive size. 
When wild, the Blind-worm generally retires to its winter-quarters towards the end of 
August, or even sooner, should the weather be chilly. The localities which it chooses for this 
Vol. III.- 9. 
