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Show 114 IIABITS OF WORMS. CHAP. II. with them mino-led with fragments of other ' b kinds of leaves, drawn in to a depth of 4 or 5 inches. Worms often remain, as formerly tated, for a long time close to the mouths of their burrows, apparently for warmth; and the basket-like structures formed of leaves would keep their bodies from corning into close contact with the cold damp earth. That they habitually rested on the pine-leaves, was rendered probable by their clean and almost polished surfaces. The burrows which run far down into tho ground, generally, or at least often, terminate in a little enlargement or chamber. llere, according to Hoffmeister, one or several worms pass the winter rolled up into a ball. Mr. Lindsay Carnagio informed nw (1838) that he had examined many burrows over a stonequarry in Scotland, where the overlying boulder-clay and mould had recently been cleared away, and a little vertical cliff thus left. In several cases the same burrow was a little enlarged at two or three points one beneath the other ; and all the burrows terminated in a rather large cha1nbor, at a depth of 7 or 8 teet from the surface. These cham- CrrAP. U. CONSTHUCTION OF THEIR BURROWS. 115 bers contained many small sharp bits of stone and hu ks of flax-seeds. They must also have contained living seed , for on the following spring Mr. Carnagio saw grass-plants proutino- out of some of the intersected chambers. I found at .Abinger in Surrey two burrows terminating in similar chambers at a depth of 36 and 41 inches, and these were lined or paved with little pebbles, about as large as 1nustard seeds; and in one of the chambers there was a decayed oat-grain, with its hnsk. Hensen likewise states that the bottorns of the burrows are lined with little stones; and where these could not be procured, seeds, apparently of the pear, had been used, as many as fifteen having been carried down into a sino-le n burrow, one of which had germinated.* We thus see how easily a botanist might be deceived who wished to learn how lono-o deeply buried seeds remained alive, if he were to collect earth fr01n a. con iderablo depth, on the supposition that it could contain only seeds which had long lain buried. It is probable that the little stones * 'Zcitschrift ftir wissenschaft. Zool )g.' B. xxviii. 1877, p. 35G.' l ~ |
