THE LIVING WORLD. 
148 
tail with a snap, and leave this portion to its enemy while the body finds refuge 
in flight. This fragility of the blind worm is a most curious characteristic, 
from which fact has no doubt arisen a belief in the existence of the glass 
snake, having power to break itself into pieces and afterwards to unite the parts 
together again. In the blind worm this power certainly does reside, but is 
restricted to the separation of its tail, which constitutes something more than one- 
half of the creature’s entire length. Where the tail is thus thrown off, it con¬ 
tinues active for about half an hour, a provision of nature to enable the animal 
to deceive its enemy and effect its escape. The tail seems to be attached to 
the body rather than to constitute a continuous growth, but when shed another 
speedily supplants the one lost. 
The Grotto Proteus (,Proteus anguineus). This curiouscreature, while 
classed with the 
lizard order, is 
more truly a 
newt, its home 
being in the wa¬ 
ter, out of which 
it cannot live 
above a few 
hours. It was 
first discovered 
in a grotto near 
Adelsberg, 
Prussia, which 
extended many 
hundred feet 
underground, 
where profound 
darkness was 
continuous. At 
the bottom of 
this grotto was 
a small lake, 
the shores of which were covered with soft mud, in which the proteus was found 
crawling. Several of these animals have been taken to England, one of which 
was kept by Mr. Beale in an aquarium for five years, in all of which time it 
is not known to have taken any food. 
The proteus seldom attains a length of more than one foot. Its color is a 
very pale gray, with the faintest showing of a flesh tint. If it possesses eyes 
they are not discernible, though rudiments of orbits are observable in the skull; 
as it seeks the dark invariably, and is most uneasy in a place where any light 
is present, the probability is that it is sightless. But an equally singular char¬ 
acteristic is seen in the very curious gills with which it is provided, resembling, 
as they do, the delicate mosses that grow in stagnant water, and so transparent 
that the circulation of blood is plainly visible to the naked eye. Its mouth is 
armed with sharp teeth, and the jaws are so powerful that the creature 
has been known to bite through a fish, taking flesh, bone and fin at a 
single snap. In the aquarium the proteus has been fed on gold-fish, fresh 
worm snake (Calamari.i albiventer). 
