THE COMMON LEECH. 535 



The worms have a curious habit of searching for various leaves and dragging them into 

 their holes, the point downwards, and are always careful to select those particular leaves 

 which they best like. As a general rule, they dislike evergreens ; and the leaf which I have 

 found to be most in favor is that of the primrose. I have often watched the worms engaged in 

 this curious pursuit ; and in the dusk of the evening it has a very strange effect to see a leaf 

 moving over the ground as if by magic, the dull reddish-brown of the worm being quite invis- 

 ible in the imperfect light. 



The food of the Earth-worm is wholly of a vegetable nature, and consists of the roots of 

 various plants, of leaves, and decaying vegetable substances. Many persons cherish a rooted 

 fear of the Earth-worm, fancying that it lives in church-yards and feeds upon the dead. 

 These fears are but idle prejudice, for the worm cares no more for the coffined dead than 

 does the tiger for the full manger, or the ox for the bleeding gazelle. The corpse when 

 once laid in the ground sinks into its dust by natural corruption, untouched by the imagined 

 devourer. 



The so-called worms that feed upon decaying animal substances are the larvae of various 

 flies and beetles, which are hatched from eggs laid by the parent ; so that if the maternal 

 insect be excluded, there cannot be any possibility of the larvae. Moreover, neither the fly 

 nor beetle could live at the depth in which a coffin is deposited in the earth ; and if perchance 

 one or two should happen to fall into the grave, they would be dead in half an hour, from the 

 deprivation of air and the weight of the superincumbent soil. 



Let, therefore, the poor Earth-worm be freed from causeless reproach ; and though its 

 form be not attractive, nor its touch agreeable, let it, at all events, be divested of the terrors 

 with which it has hitherto been clothed. 



The Earth-worm is a timid and retiring creature, living below the surface of the ground, 

 and having a great objection to heat and light. Heat dries up the coat of mucus with which 

 its body is covered, and which enables it to slide through the ground without retaining a 

 particle of soil upon its surface. A very moderate amount of heat soon kills an Earth-worm ; 

 and if one of these annelids be placed in a spot where it cannot hide itself from the sun's rays, 

 it soon dies, and either melts into a kind of soft jelly, or hardens into a thin strip of horny 

 parchment. 



The vexed question of its use to agriculture is too wide a subject to be treated at length 

 in these pages ; but we may safely come to two conclusions first, that unless it were of some 

 use it would never have been made ; and secondly, that it will be wiser to find out wherein its 

 use lies than to kill it first and then perhaps discover that its presence was absolutely needful 

 and its absence injurious. 



The Earth-worm is of no direct use to mankind, except, perhaps, as bait for the angler ; 

 and for this purpose they are easily obtained by the simple process of driving a garden-fork 

 into the ground and shaking it about vigorously. The timid worms are very much alarmed 

 at the tremulous earth, and come to the surface for the purpose of escaping, when they can be 

 easily seized and captured. 



SUCTORIA. 



THE COMMON LEECH is almost as familiar as the earth-worm, and is one of a genus which 

 furnish the blood-sucking creatures which are so largely used in surgery. It belongs to a large 

 group of Annelida which have no projecting bristles to help them onward, and are, therefore, 

 forced to proceed in a different manner. 



All these Leeches are wonderfully adapted for the purpose to which they are applied, their 

 mouths being supplied with sharp teeth to cut the vessels, and with a sucker-like disc, so that 

 the blood can be drawn from its natural channels ; while their digestive organs are little more 

 than a series of sacs in which an enormous quantity of blood can be received and retained. 



