trace of gnawing. Of ordinary dicotyledonous leaves, all those which are
dragged into burrows are not gnawed. I have seen as many as nine leaves
of the lime-tree drawn into the same burrow, and not nearly all of them
had been gnawed; but such leaves may serve as a store for future
consumption. Where fallen leaves are abundant, many more are sometimes
collected over the mouth of a burrow than can be used, so that a small
pile of unused leaves is left like a roof over those which have been
partly dragged in.
A leaf in being dragged a little way into a cylindrical burrow is
necessarily much folded or crumpled. When another leaf is drawn in, this
is done exteriorly to the first one, and so on with the succeeding
leaves; and finally all become closely folded and pressed together.
Sometimes the worm enlarges the mouth of its burrow, or makes a fresh one
close by, so as to draw in a still larger number of leaves. They often
or generally fill up the interstices between the drawn-in leaves with
moist viscid earth ejected from their bodies; and thus the mouths of the
burrows are securely plugged. Hundreds of such plugged burrows may be
seen in many places, especially during the autumnal and early winter
months. But, as will hereafter be shown, leaves are dragged into the
burrows not only for plugging them up and for food, but for the sake of
lining the upper part or mouth.
When worms cannot obtain leaves, petioles, sticks, &c., with which to
plug up the mouths of their burrows, they often protect them by little
heaps of stones; and such heaps of smooth rounded pebbles may frequently
be seen on gravel-walks. Here there can be no question about food. A
lady, who was interested in the habits of worms, removed the little heaps
of stones from the mouths of several burrows and cleared the surface of
the ground for some inches all round. She went out on the following
night with a lantern, and saw the worms with their tails fixed in their
burrows, dragging the stones inwards by the aid of their mouths, no doubt
by suction. After two nights some of the holes had 8 or 9 small stones
over them; after four nights one had about 30, and another 34 stones.
{58} One stone which had been dragged over the gravel-walk to the mouth
of a burrow weighed two ounces; and this proves how strong worms are.
But they show greater strength in sometimes displacing stones in a
well-trodden gravel-walk; that they do so, may be inferred from the
cavities left by the displaced stones being exactly filled by those lying
over the mouths of adjoining burrows, as I have myself observed.
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