Field- Labourers 77 



two lips, with which it is able to grasp leaves and 

 other things firmly enough to drag them into its 

 burrow. Sometimes, however, it seems to vary its 

 manner of proceeding, and, instead of grasping the 

 object it wishes to move, it presses its mouth upon it 

 until it adheres firmly by mere suction. 



Worms are omnivorous : they will eat anything 

 eatable, and will feed daintily upon half-decayed 

 flowers and almost any kind of vegetable matter, or 

 coarsely upon their own dead comrades, or meat when 

 put in their way. But their chief food consists of half- 

 decayed leaves, enormous quantities of which are 

 pulled into their burrows, torn into small shreds, and 

 then swallowed and digested ; and it is this vegetable 

 matter which changes the colour of the earth which 

 the worms swallow with it, and converts it into ' mould ' 

 vegetable mould. 



Two worms kept in a large pot of sand, well 

 moistened, of course, but consisting only of mineral 

 matter, converted the top layer into vegetable mould 

 four inches deep, simply by the help of the leaves 

 strewed on the surface. 



In woods the fallen leaves are being constantly 

 covered with worm castings, and thus converted into 

 rich soil ; and in Sumatra the ground in the forests is 

 almost as rough as a field which has been literally 

 ploughed, so thickly is it covered with large worm 

 heaps eight inches high, often thrown up in a single 

 night. There may be as many as ten or twelve of 

 these in a square yard, and the creatures seem to be 

 incessantly at work bringing up soil and burying leaves, 

 twigs, etc. 



As to the actual amount of soil swallowed by worms, 



