110 COLIH CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



chance to "be passing on the way ; for, after a burrow is 

 once made, it remains open all that season as a sort of 

 permanent pitfall, intersecting many worm - tunnels. 

 During winter, or at least in times of frost, he retires to 

 what is called his fortress, containing a circular nest, 

 with one or two irregular galleries for escape, in case he 

 is attacked by man or carnivores. The very symmetrical 

 ground-plan of these fortresses, however, which has been 

 copied over and over again in popular books from a 

 sketch by an imaginative French naturalist, seems to me 

 ridiculously overdone in the matter of systematic com- 

 pleteness. The real fortress is comparatively a very 

 simple matter I have seen Tom open dozens of them 

 and has only a few quite casual-looking passages instead 

 of the complicated circular galleries with equidistant 

 exits and five internal communications shown in the 

 well-known picture. "While the frost lasts the hungry 

 animal lies coiled up dormant in this hibernating cham- 

 ber ; but the moment a thaw sets in, and the worms can 

 get about once more, he is out at once, and you can track 

 his path everywhere through the meadows by his numer- 

 ous little mounds of soft fresh mould. As an enemy of 

 our benefactor the earthworm he is no doubt fair sport 

 for man ; but I often fancy he must do much good in 

 his way, too, by loosening the soil and letting it crumble 

 down and mellow in the open air. 



