Feb. 2 1, 1889] 



NATURE 



395 



chamber hollowed out underneath containing a pool of 

 water, and through these chambers the worms' burrows 

 frequently pass. The " crab " almost invariably has a 

 large conical " casting " at the entrance to its hole, and 

 may raise this to a height of even a foot and more ; but 

 the true worm-burrow never, so far as yet observed, has 

 any "casting" at its entrance, and all trace of this is 

 wanting where the crab-holes are absent. The very 

 frequent association of the *' crab " and worm leads to 

 the idea that the latter forms a cast ; but one of the 

 most noticeable features of the ground, which is at times 

 riddled with worm-burrows only, is the entire absence of 

 "castings." What the worm does with the immense 

 quantity of earth which it passes through its body I 

 cannot at present say, and it must also be noticed that 

 only on very rare occasions can any trace be detected of 

 leaves dragged down into the burrows. 



It is no easy matter to extract the worm without injury, 

 owing to its length, the coiling of the burrow, the rapidity 

 of movement which it possesses when underground, and 

 its power of distending either the anterior or posterior 

 ends of the body, or both. 



Directly the burrow is laid bare, the worm is seen 

 i^^liding rapidly away, often producing the curious gurg- 

 ling sound as it passes through the slimy fluid always 



MegascoUdes australis. Drawing of McCoy's figure (" Prodr. ZjoI. Vict.," 

 i. pi. vii.). 



present in a burrow containing the living animal. Sooner 

 than allow itself to be drawn out, it fixes, if held in the 

 middle, both ends of its body by swelling them out till 

 they are tightly jammed against the sides of the burrow ; 

 under these circumstances, pulling merely results in tear- 

 ing the body. The worm has been described as brittle, 

 but this term is most inapplicable, as its body is very soft, 

 and capable of a great amount of extension before tearing. 

 Its curious smell, when living, resembling somewhat that 

 of creosote, has been already observed by Prof. McCoy, 

 and, when dead, it is worse than ever, and very strong 

 and characteristic ; the body, in decaying, passes into an 

 oily fluid, which, we were assured by one or two old 

 natives of the district, is very good for rheumatism. 

 Fowls refuse to touch the worm, living or dead. 



When held in the hand, the worm, m contracting its 

 body, throws out jets of a milky fluid from its dorsal 

 pores to a height of several inches ; if the burrow be 

 examined carefully, its sides are seen to be very smooth, 

 and coated over with a fluid exactly similar to that ejected 

 from the pores. Whatever be the primary function of 

 the fluid when within the body-cavity, there can be no 

 doubt that it has the important and perhaps secondary 



function, when it has passed out of the body, of making 

 the burrow walls smooth, moist, and slippery, and of thus 

 enabling the animal to glide along with ease and speed. 



The worm in its burrow moves rapidly by swelling up 

 its anterior or posterior end, as the case may be, and then, 

 using this as a fixed point, in doing which the setae per- 

 haps help, though to a minor extent, it strongly contracts 

 the rest of its body. In the next movement, the end free 

 in the first instance will be swollen out and used as a 

 fixed point, from which expansion forwards can take 

 place. These changes of motion follow each other so 

 rapidly, that in the burrows the appearance of continuous 

 gliding is given. Outside the burrow, when the whole 

 body-surface is not in contact with the earth, the worm 

 makes no attempt whatever to move, lying passively on 

 the ground. Anyone who merely sees the beast removed 

 from its burrow imagines it to be of a very sluggish tem- 

 perament, and can form no idea of its active and rapid 

 movements when underground. 



So far as locomotion is concerned, its setae seem to be 

 of little or no use to it. The perichaete worms, on the 

 contrary, when taken from the burrow, move along on 

 the ground with remarkable speed, certainly using their 

 setit as aids to progression. 



The burrows of the large worm measure |-i inch in 

 diameter ; and in disused ones are often found (i) casts 

 of the worms, or rather, what are probably the earthy 

 contents of the alimentary canal, with clear indications 

 marked upon them of the segments of the body ; and (2) 

 more rarely cocoons. The latter measure i\-7. inches 

 in length, vary from light yellow to dark brown in colour, 

 according to their age, and contain only one embryo 

 each, which I have at present only been able to obtain in 

 a somewhat highly developed state. 



The cocoon itself is somewhat thin, and made of a 

 tough leathery material, with a very distinct stalk-like 

 process at each end ; it contains a milky fluid, closely 

 similar to that found in the body-cavity of the worm. 



It is interesting to note the fact that at the present 

 time we know of three especially large kinds of earth- 

 worms ; that, of these, one comes from South Africa, 

 another from the southern parts of India and Ceylon, and 

 the third from the south of Australia. We know as yet 

 little about the distribution of earthworms, but the same 

 laws which governed the distribution of other animals 

 must also have governed theirs, and it is just possible 

 that these great earthworms may be the lingering relics 

 of a once widely-spread race of larger earthworms, 

 whose representatives at the present day are only found, 

 as occurs with other forms of life, in the southern parts 

 of the large land-masses of the earth's surface. Possibly 

 careful search will reveal the existence of a large earth- 

 worm in the southern parts of South America. 



NOTES. 



In reply to his letter in our columns on the 7th inst. (p. 341), 

 Mr. Sclater has received applications from several unexception- 

 able candidates for the post of Naturalist to the Pilcomayo 

 Expedition. Out of these, Captain Page has agreed to select 

 Mr. Graham Kerr, of the University of Edinburgh, to accom- 

 pany him. Mr. Kerr is most highly recommended by Prof. 

 Balfour, Prof. Geikie, and Prof. Ewart as in every way suited 

 for the work. He will leave England for Buenos Ayres about 

 the beginning of June. 



It has now been definitely arranged that the steamer 

 Hvidbjornen shall leave Copenhagen on March 15 for Green- 

 land, in order to bring back the members of the Nansen 

 Expedition. The vessel will, however, not be back in Copen- 

 hagen until the beginning of June. After a few days' sojourn 

 in that city. Dr. Nansen will proceed direct to Bergen, and 

 prepare a work on his expedition and its scientific results. 



