36 HABITS OF WORMS. Chap. i. 



likewise petioles, peduncles and decayed 

 flowers. But they will also consume fresh 

 leaves, as I have found by repeated trials. 

 According to Morren* they will eat particles 

 of sugar and liquorice ; and the worms which 

 I kept drew many bits of dry starch into 

 their burrows, and a large bit had its angles 

 well rounded by the fluid poured out of their 

 mouths. But as they often drag particles of 

 soft stone, such as of chalk, into their burrows, 

 I feel some doubt whether the starch was 

 used as food. Pieces of raw and roasted meat 

 were fixed several times by long pins to the 

 surface of the soil in my pots, and night after 

 night the worms could be seen tugging at 

 them, with the edges of the pieces engulfed 

 in their mouths, so that much was consumed. 

 Raw fat seems to be preferred even to raw 

 meat or to any other substance which was 

 given them, and much was consumed. They 

 are cannibals, for the two halves of a dead 

 worm placed in two of the pots were dragged 

 into the burrows and gnawed ; but as far as 

 I could judge, they prefer fresh to putrid 

 meat, and in so far I differ from Hoffmeister. 



* ' Do Lurabrici terrestris ' p. 19. 



