530 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



the farm have been " ringbarked " for some years, and from time 

 to time especially during high winds after rain, some of those on 

 sloping ground fall, and their numerous, long, spreading roots tear 

 up large quantities — often several cwt — of the soil compacted 

 round them, so as to present the appearance, when seen from below, 

 of large discs sometimes six or eight feet in diameter. Here the 

 burrows of worms of all sizes, most of them completely plugged 

 with cylindrical castings, may be found running in all directions, 

 some of them nearly horizontal. Such places are evidently favourite 

 spots with the worms, and they probably habitually live in them, or 

 they perhaps specially resort to them for breeding purposes, or 

 during dry periods. Generally if such trees have not been 

 down so long that the earth has become dry, one may count upon 

 finding two or three big worms by digging away the soil ; and it 

 is in this way that I have obtained many of my best examples. (1) 

 Still I have never been able to find surface castings about the 

 bases of the standing trees, nor have I found that the burrows open 

 on the surface in such situations. If, as I suppose, the worms 

 come to the surface only exceptionally or not at all, it may at first 

 sight appear difficult to understand under what circumstances 

 copulation takes place. Nevertheless as D'Udekem (2) says of 

 Lumbricus communis var. cy emeus, "cette variete pa rait sortir plus 

 difficilement de la terre, que les autres ; l'accouplement parait se 

 faire sous terre," it is possible that a similar state of things obtains 

 with the worms in question. 



The burrows run perpendicularly, or more or less obliquely, and 

 are sometimes even somewhat devious, as one may see by tracing 

 the course of a worm ; so that on one occasion in trying to dig out 

 of its burrow a very large specimen, which I saw for an instant 

 and then lost sight of, I unintentionally cut off a considerable 

 piece of both ends with one stroke of the spade. The surface of 



(1) I do not know at present whether the worms live in this way about 

 the roots of living trees ; possibly such situations would be too dry for 

 them on account of the absorption of moisture by the roots. 



(2) Mem. Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 1863. 





