196 ISRITISH ANNELIDS. 



drier places, coiled up in a state of quiescence, ana perfectly clean 

 within and without. 



6. I need mention only one other favourite habitat. In passing 

 through pasture land it is well to overhaul the dry droppings, the 

 stones or boulders which are large enough to keep the grass from 

 growing, and the decaying timbers, old logs, unbarked trees, and 

 other similar harbourers of uncanny creatures. Here will be found 

 the purple worm, the green worm, the red head, marsh worm, and 

 gilt-tail, with perhaps one or two others. 



It will be seen that there are few places where worms may not be 

 sought with some reasonable hope of discovering sufificient to afford 

 one occupation for many days to come. It will perhaps be well to 

 indicate here how worms should be prepared for future use. The 

 process is simple. The collector should carry with him a tin box 

 or two containing a sufficient quantity of soft, damp, clean moss, to 

 fill the receptacle loosely. It would be well for the beginner to have 

 a separate box for each locality, duly numbered or labelled, so that 

 he might have a means of learning what worms were peculiar to 

 certain habitats. After keeping the worms a short time in the moss, 

 to clean and scour, they should be carefully removed one by one, 

 with as little rubbish as possible, and put into an old tumbler half 

 filled with water. When all the worms from the tin are transferred 

 to water, a little common salt should be dropped in if it is intended 

 to preserve them for future use. This causes them to empty their 

 canal of excrement, which would otherwise greatly interfere with 

 section cutting. Let the worms now be transferred to another glass 

 of pure water, leaving the refuse behind. If it is necessary to 

 examine the worms alive, in order to note their colours and other 

 external characteristics before they are changed by the preservative 

 medium, let a little methylated ether be dropped into the water. 

 This quiets without paining them, and soothes any slight irritation 

 caused by the salt. They can now be examined on a plate, sketches 

 or drawings taken, the colours imitated, and the worm transferred to 

 weak spirits. This will kill the creature while it is still in a comatose 

 or unconscious state — for of all things in the world a naturalist must 

 avoid giving even a worm a needless pang — and, finally, it can be 

 placed in strong spirits for permanent preservation. 



i^To be continued.^ 



