The average person cannot understand why the naturalist should be so "pig-headed" as to regard the Slow-worm, Blind-worm or Deaf-adder as a lizard when it is so obviously a snake, and has no legs such as a properly constructed lizard should have. If the naturalist were given to argument of the _tu quoque_ order he might retort by asking why the average man persists in styling a swift-gliding reptile a Slow-worm, or one with brilliant eyes a Blind-worm? But the probability is that he will quote Longfellow and tell the inquirer that "things are not [always] what they seem"--that under the close and polished, uniform scaly covering there are vestiges of limbs that have been discarded in the long evolutionary history of the species; that it has eyelids like other lizards, that the two sides of the lower jaw have a bony union in front, and that it has a notched not forked tongue--characters that do not agree with the structure of any snake. But all this will fall upon deaf ears, and the average man will go on slaughtering Slow-worms at sight, and believing that he has done a brave and meritorious thing. The Slow-worm attains a maximum length of seventeen or eighteen inches, but the average "large" example is about a foot long. Its head is quite small and short, not so broad as the body just behind it. The tail, which is much longer than the head and body, and longer in the male than in the female, tapers gradually, and is very slender before ending in the short sharp point at the tip. In many examples this graceful tapering of the tail is not evident, because at some time it has been broken short, and the effort to renew it, whilst it gives a sort of finish, never appears to be a success. There is usually a ragged end to the old part, and the narrower new part appears to have been rather clumsily stuck inside the fringe of old scales. Many specimens are in this condition, for the Slow-worm is much more ready to part with its tail than either of our other lizards. The scales on the upper and under sides are nearly uniform in size and shape, broader than in the other lizards and rounded on the hind margin which is thinner than the dark coloured central part of the scale. The scales are quite without keels, polished and plainly overlap their fellows. There is a thin dark line down the centre of the back, and another on the upper part of each side.