Slow worm

“ The slow-worm is covered with very smooth and shiny scales. The back is silvery yellow and marked from one end to the other by three black lines which change, as the worm grows older, to a succession of dots and even disappear entirely at last. The stomach is blackish. On being disturbed the slow-worm forcibly contracts, stiffens, and becomes almost as rigid as a lizard’s tail. ”

“ Like all the other reptiles that inhabit these islands, the Slow-worm retires to a place of security on the approach of winter, which it passes in a state of insensibility. Sometimes it contents itself with hiding under a compact mass of decaying leaves in a sheltered situation, but more commonly it penetrates into the soft earth, where it is covered with heath or brushwood, forming burrows by means of its smooth muzzle and polished body, to the depth of three or four feet, describing in its course "different circuits, and having several issues." ”

“ The food of the Slow-worm must of necessity be very small, for the mouth not being dilatable, as in the true Snakes, it cannot possibly receive such prey as Frogs, Toads, and Rats, which have been absurdly assigned to it. Professor Bell has found insects in its stomach, and M. de Sept Fontaines asserts that it will readily feed on earth-worms, even of six or seven inches in length. ”

“ They see with one eye only, the other has been absorbed and become dead. Every creature has in it a promise of something better than what it is. The slow-worm has rudimentary legs, but they are never developed ”

“ Like the Common Lizard, the female Slow-worm retains her eggs until they are fully developed, so that in August or September she produces a litter of six to twelve animated silver needles about two inches in length, with a thin black line along the centre of the back, and black on the underside. These are very active and very beautiful, perfectly independent and able to fend for themselves, catching insects, but at once showing preference for slugs if these are to be found of a size small enough to pass the tiny mouth. ”

“ It is not an easy matter to study its feeding habits when it is at large, and our knowledge of its food preferences have been derived mainly from Slow-worms in captivity. It will take spiders, small earthworms, and small insects; but always shows a marked preference for the small greyish-white slug (Limax agrestis) that is so great a pest to the grower of tender vegetables. This slug the Slow-worm consumes in quantity. Dr. Gerald Leighton, in his book on the "British Lizards," says: "I can vouch for a meal that consisted of seventeen slugs, the Slow-worm being a large male sixteen inches long. ”

“ It then spends the day under flat stones and in burrows. In Cornwall years ago we could always find a number of Slow-worms by turning over such loose stones along the top of the cliffs; and we have since found them pretty generally distributed without much regard to the nature of the soil. Its principal enemies—besides man—are the Viper and the Hedgehog. In the winter the Slow-worm retires—often in the company of half a dozen or so of its own kind—into an underground burrow or a hollow beneath a large stone, and goes to sleep ”

“ Like its congeners it casts its skin from time to time—apparently about four times a year, but the frequency of the sloughing depends, of course, upon whether it is a good slug year or the reverse, for the shedding of the cuticle is in response to the demand for more room for the growing body. The Slow-worm's length of life is not known ”

“ The small mouth has the jaws well armed with uniform slightly curved teeth, whose points are all directed backwards. The bright eyes are placed low down, not much above the upper jaw. The head is covered by much larger scales than usual, but in this case the head regions are not so clearly mapped out as in the other species, owing to the thin edges of the scales giving no strong outlines. With a live Slow-worm in the hand one gets a clear idea of the smoothness and close attachment of the scaly covering. ”

“ But every sweet hovers in her battalions, and every heavenly influence: coolth of the wayward little winds of morning, flowers awakening, birds a-carol, dews a-sparkle on the fine-drawn webs the tiny spinners hang from fern-frond to thorn, from thorn to wet dainty leaf of the silver birch; the young day laughing in her strength, wild with her own beauty; fire and life and every scent and colour born anew to triumph over chaos and slow darkness and the kinless night. ”

“ In the suburbs of London, I found them glad of such varieties as could be procured from the shrubs in a garden, or by digging; and small worms, caterpillars, spiders, or insects were in turn eagerly pounced upon. ‘Birdie’ was particularly quick in detecting a rarity and in being first to seize it. Flies are liked by the lizards, but not by the slow-worms, the latter preferring less dry food. ”

“ Once such an insect is caught on one of the threads it is lost beyond all hope. There it sticks, struggle as it may. The vibrations caused by its struggles attract the attention of the glow worm which quickly winds up the hanging thread. If it is not hungry at the moment it has been observed to play with its victim, [Pg 5] drawing in and then letting out the line after the manner of a fisherman. Finally the prey is drawn into the silken sheath and entirely devoured, chitinous shell and all. It is not merely sucked, as is the fashion of the spider or the fly. ”

“ Nightfall and the robin’s method are best. Wait till the full darkness of a moist night. Hang a lantern about your neck and get down on your marrow bones by a grassy roadside. Worms do not see, and are not sensitive to light. You have but to crawl quietly forward and pick them up with a quick snatch, for the worm can feel, and he gets back into his burrow with an agility which is surprising. ”

“ Again, when the worms are out of their tunnels at night, a strong light shining on them will at once cause them to seek their holes.
If the back of an earthworm be examined with a high-power lens (×500) , small points of pigment will be seen here and there in its dorsal integument; these, I believe, are primitive eyes (ocelli) . I think that the worm is enabled to tell the difference between light and darkness through the agency of these minute dark spots, which serve to arrest the rays of light, thus conveying a stimulus to nerve-fibrils, which, in turn, carry it to the sensorium. ”

“ It is constantly seen wading in the shallows, digging up little slippery insects, the peculiar form of the bill enabling it to work them easily out of the sand. When feeding, it puts its head under the water to seize the insect at the bottom, then lifts it up quickly, making a rapid gobbling, as if swallowing a wriggling worm. ”

“ These they obtain either by turning over lumps of decaying vegetable matter and picking up the scattered worms, or by thrusting their bills into the soft earth, where (guided by scent it is supposed) they speedily find any worm lying hid, and having drawn it out, swallow it whole, with much dexterity. When the earth is frozen hard, they shift their ground, repairing to the neighbourhood of the sea, or of springs; and now, probably, they are less select in their diet, feeding on any living animal matter that may fall in their way. ”

“ Whilst many of the subterraneous insects, as the common worms, seem to retreat so deep into the earth as not to be enlivened or awakened by the difference of our winter days; and stop up their holes with leaves or straws, to prevent the frosts from injuring them, or the centipes from devouring them. The habits of peace, or the stratagems of war, of these subterranean nations are covered from our view; but a friend of mine prevailed on a distressed worm to enter the hole of another worm on a bowling-green, and he presently returned much wounded about his head. ”

“ An inherent impulse, or geotropism, then impels it to climb any plant or vertical object with which it happens to be in contact. At the top it extends its body horizontally and probes the surroundings.
Once a victim is found, the hungry worm seeks a thin patch of skin richly supplied with blood capillaries. There it attaches itself by means of the cup-like sucker at the front end of its body. Immediately behind this cup are three radiating ridges, or jaws, each provided with about 70 sharp teeth. ”

“ A worm like a night crawler, only much larger, in fact, very much larger. That made him laugh — to think how much larger this worm was than the ones he had used for fishing. All through the night he walked the floor and burned the lamp and said, "This is my home. No worm can make me leave it!" Several times he went down the steps, just a few of them, and shouted the message into the pit as though he wanted the Worm to hear and understand, "This is my home! NO WORM CAN MAKE ME LEAVE IT!!" ”

“ The female glow-worm, the light-giver, is wingless; the male is winged. The latter, however, has but little of the light emitting power possessed by the female. Only the light-givers are collected, and being destitute of the first attribute of an insect, wings, are set down in popular parlance as worms. Old mossy banks, damp hedgerows, and shaded woods are the loved haunts of the fireflies, and the warm nights of the soft summer months most induce them to burn their soft lustre. Some widowed worm or firefly flirt may shed her luminous self in the darkness even on into dying summer or autumn. ”

“ They build their houses from the slime of their own bodies.
This class is that of the ribbon worms or nemertina. There are about five hundred known species—perhaps as many more are unknown. Still near the bottom of animal life, they represent revolutionary advances from the lowest of worms, the planarians, with which they share many characteristics. They have evolved integrated brains and nervous systems. They have, for the most part, taken on a true worm shape. They have acquired weapons and, in some cases, arsenals of weapons. They have eyes that see. ”

“ Morren states [14] that worms often lie for hours almost motionless close beneath the mouths of their burrows. I have occasionally noticed the same fact with worms kept in pots in the house; so that by looking down into their burrows, their heads could just be seen. If the ejected earth or rubbish over the burrows be suddenly removed, the end of the worm’s body may very often be seen rapidly retreating. This habit of lying near the surface leads to their destruction to an immense extent. ”

“ He said, “If you cut the worm in two, each end will go off and be a whole worm.”
That is not true of the worm. When the worm is cut in two, the parts do not die at once. As there are hooks and rings on each part, they each can move off.
It is thought that if the fore part is left safe, the cut can close up, and the worm can still live. A new tail may grow upon the front part, as Mr. Crab’s new claw or eye-peg grows.
The hind part cannot live and grow. It cannot get a new mouth or heart, so it can take no food, and have no blood. It soon dries up and dies. ”

“ The earth-worms never behave so ill. The “worms” that people mean, when they speak of this harm done, are the grubs or larvæ of some insects, as of the daddy-long-legs and others.
These grubs and cut-worms will eat living plants, but Mr. Worm likes dead leaves and stems best. He wants his food made soft by decay.
Now we come to the chief work of the true earth-worms. When they make their halls and houses, they fill their long bodies with the earth. Some say it is their food. ”

“ The red, fat fellows never come amiss, but the light, flabby kind afford no great lure for even the hungriest sort of a fish. The worm that keeps its tail a-wiggling after he is on the hook, is just the thing. The manure worm, the marsh worm, and a worm found at the root of the sweet flag, all make good bait; but the best of all is the night-crawling earth-worm.
ANGLE WORMS are best kept in a tin box in which a number of holes are pierced to admit air, but they must not be so large as to let the worms out. ”

“ They become strong, light colored and lively, and should be threaded on a fine hook by passing the point in at the head of the worm and out half-way down the side; then in, half up the side of another, and forced nearly to the head. Worms, if cast as in fly-fishing, are very attractive, and will frequently kill an immense number of fish. There is much skill in casting so as not to tear off the bait, and yet to cover an extent of water. ”

“ The worms carry into their homes leaves and stalks to eat. They bring out, and throw away, things which they do not like. Worms show much sense in the way in which they carry things in and out of their holes. If a stem will not go in, they turn it over, and try it in some other way.
Mr. Worm at Home.
Worms usually come out of their holes at night or in wet weather. If they go far from their house, they cannot find their way back. Then they make a new hole. Each worm lives alone. ”

“ Often in the evening or early morning, or during rain, you will see worms near their houses. You may find them with their heads just put out of their doors. You will see the worm casts in early day or after rain. It is then the worms dare to come out. Sun and heat dry worms up very fast, and so kill them. ”

“ And likewise the great common Earth-worms, for curing it. Neither is it without ground that this Worm [or Scarabæus] we mention, far exceed all the rest of them that are endued with Virtues, healing Diseases. The Cantharides come far short of it, and the sky coloured Flies, which are formed onely in Carkasses, are far short of the Cantharides. In the next place follow those greater Flies, that usually stay in men’s houses, and keep buzzing about till they can find some raw Flesh, whereon they cast their filth in the likeness of small Eggs or Knits, which become Worms in a days time. ”