OCR Text |
Show 88 HABITS OF \VOHMS. CJIAP. II. 33 per cent. by the base. In five cases, two triangles were drawn into the same burrow. It may be suggested with much apparent probability that so large a proportion of. the triangles were drawn in by the ~pex, not from the worms having selected this end as the most convenient for the purpose, but from having first tried in other ways and failed. This notion was countenanced by the manner in which worms in confinement were seen to drag about and drop the triangles; .but then they were working carelessly. I ~Hl no~ at first perceive the importance of th1s subjec~, but merely noticed that the bases of those tnangles which had been drawn in by the apex, were generally clean and not crumpled. . The subject was afterwards attended to carefully. In the first place several triangles which had been drawn in by the basal angles, or by the base, or a little above the base, and which were thus much crumpled and dirtied, were left for some hours in water and were then well shaken while immersed; but neither the dirt nor the creases were thus removed. Only slight creases could be obliterated, even by pulling the wet triangles several CHAP. II. TllEIR lN'l'ELLIGENCE. 89 times through my fingers. Owing to the slime from the wonns' bodies, the dirt was not easily washed off. We may therefore conclude that if a triangle, before being dragged in by the apex, hal been dragged into a burrow by its base with even a slight degree of force, the basal part would long retain its creases and remain dirty. The condition of 89 triangles (u5 narrow and 24 broad oneR), which had been drawn in by the apex, was observed; and the bases of only 7 of them were at all creased, being at the same time generally dirty. Of the 82 uncreased triangles, 14 were dirty at the base; but it does not fo1low from this fact that these had first been dragged towards the burrows by their bases ; for the worms someti1nes covered large portions of the triangles with slime, and these when dragged by tbe apexover the ground would be dirtied; and during rainy weather, the triangles were often dirtied over one whole side or over both sides. If the worms had dragged the triangles to the mouths of their burrows by their bases, as often as by their apices, and bad then perceived, without actually trying to draw them into the |