CHAP. II. PROTECTION OF THEIR BURROWS. 61 



mouth of another. Some of these objects, 

 such as the petioles just named, feathers, &c., 

 are never gnawed by worms. In a gravel- 

 walk in my garden I found many hundred 

 leaves of a pine-tree (P. austriaca or nigri- 

 ^ans) drawn by their bases into burrows. 

 The surfaces by which these leaves are articu- 

 lated to the branches are shaped in as pecu- 

 liar a manner as is the joint between the leg- 

 bones of a quadruped ; and if these surfaces 

 had been in the least gnawed, the fact would 

 have been immediately visible, but there was 

 no trace of gnawing. Of ordinary dicotyle- 

 donous leaves, all those which are dragged 

 into burrows are not gnawed. I have seen 

 as many as nine leaves of the lime-tree 

 drawn into the same burrow, and not nearly 

 all of them had been gnawed ; but such 

 leaves may serve as a store for future con- 

 sumption. Where fallen leaves are abun- 

 dant, many more are sometimes collected 

 over the mouth of a burrow than can be 

 used, so that a small pile of unused leaves is 

 left like a roof over those which have been 

 partly dragged in. 



A leaf in being dragged a little way into 



