. The life-history of British lizards and their local distribution in the British Isles. of doing. If theyare held up by the neck, firmly gripped by the thumband finger as if they were something which mighthave to be dropped very suddenly—as many holdthem,—they will probably lash themselves wildly fromside to side and at the same time stiffen the musclesof the tail. It is an energetic protest against themethod of handling. In such a case a part of the tailis very apt to be broken off, due to the great fragilitypossessed by this organ, hence the specific namefragilis. No danger of this accident
. The life-history of British lizards and their local distribution in the British Isles. of doing. If theyare held up by the neck, firmly gripped by the thumband finger as if they were something which mighthave to be dropped very suddenly—as many holdthem,—they will probably lash themselves wildly fromside to side and at the same time stiffen the musclesof the tail. It is an energetic protest against themethod of handling. In such a case a part of the tailis very apt to be broken off, due to the great fragilitypossessed by this organ, hence the specific namefragilis. No danger of this accident need be appre-hended if the captor will allow the slow-worm to reston the whole of the palm of the hand and insert itscoils between the fingers. The cause of this easyseparation of a part of the tail has recently been in-vestigated, and is dealt with in a subsequent is a phenomenon seen in many species of lizards,and is of use to them in assisting evasion of theirenemies. Other reptiles feed upon slow-worms, and ifthe pursuer catches the slow-worm by the tail, and the. : BLUNT TAIL. {Facing/). 32, THE SLOW-WORM, ANGUIS FRAGILIS 33 slow-worm drops the terminal few inches, both partiesattain their end. The slow-worm saves its life at theexpense of a little tail, the enemy gets its food, and isprobably also satisfied. The movement of a slow-worm upon the ground isa wonderful thing to watch. It is almost uncanny,—this smooth, even, gliding amongst the grass withoutthe slightest appearance of the putting forth of anyeffort. Very rapid it is, too, at times, though oftenslow and always quiet. The term slow-worm isprobably due to the fact that the reptile is slow tomove when observed. It cannot be accurately givento describe individual movements, many of which areextremely rapid. Very often, if the creature be en-countered as it is moving along, it will stop andbecome motionless, a habit which may also have hadits place in the origin of this term, and one w
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