

226 THE CLAY HAIRWORM. 



inspect the clay hairworm (gordius argillaceus), yet it is 

 a very curious creature. We find it at the bottoms of 

 drains and ditches, chiefly in the spring ol the year. 

 Its color is a pale yellow ; and it appears like some long 

 vegetable fibre, or root, coiled up and twisted together. 

 The whole body of the animal consists of numerous 

 annulations, or rings, by means of which it has the 

 power of contracting its substance, as it has likewise 

 of extending it, until it becomes nearly a foot in length, 

 and smooth as a wire. The extreme points are trans- 

 parent and tapering, formed of apparently harder ma- 

 terials than the body. The designation of most of our 

 small land and water creatures, in the economy of crea- 

 tion, is very obscure; and owing to the places they 

 frequent, and the secrecy of their actions, amidst mud 

 and vegetation, we have little opportunity of becoming 

 acquainted with their habits. This hairworm, however, 

 is rather less mysterious in its movements than some 

 others ; and there is cause to suppose that its chief oc- 

 cupation is that of forming perforations and openings 

 in clayey soils, admitting by this means water to pervade 

 the mass, and open it ; the finer roots of vegetables 

 then find entrance, and part it yet more, or decay in it, 

 and meliorate and fertilize the substance. 



Wonderful as all the appointments and endowments 

 of insects are, there is no part of their economy more 

 extraordinary- than the infinite variety -of forms and 

 materials to which they have recourse in the fabrication 

 of their nests ; and, as far as we can comprehend, their 

 expediency for the various purposes ' required. Among 

 those, with which I am acquainted, none pleases me 

 more than that of a solitary wasp (vespa campanaria), 

 which occasionally visits us here. It is not a common 

 . insect ; but I have met with their nests. One was fixed 

 beneath a piece of oak bark, placed in a pile ; another 

 was pendent in the hollow of a bank of earth. The 

 materials, which composed these abodes, seemed to be 

 particles scraped or torn from the dry parts of the willow, 

 sallow, or some such soft wood, and cemented again by 

 animal glue, very similar in texture to that provided by 

 the common wasp, which makes great use of the half- 



