250 ANNULATA 



(2) What are they doing outside of the burrows? 



(3) Try experiments by making different kinds of 



noises, such as halloaing, clapping the hands, 

 beating tin-pans, etc., to find out if they can 

 hear. Do not get so close as to jar them. 

 (c) Now try stamping the ground near them, or otherwise 

 jar them strongly. What do they do? How? 

 2. Laboratory Study. 



(1) Take a wide-mouthed jar (candy, museum, or battery 



jar), nearly fill it with black soil, and firm it down 

 well. Keep it cool and moist, not wet. Put thirty 

 or forty earthworms on top of the soil and watch 

 what they do. Cover the jar with fine wire screen 

 and allow it to stand undisturbed until night. 



(2) Foods and Feeding. 



(a) In the evening place small bits of various kinds of 



vegetables, lean and fat meat, etc., on the surface 

 of the soil, to find out whether they are carnivorous, 

 herbivorous, or omnivorous. 



(b) Do they choose their food by taste, smell, or feeling? 



(c) Where do they feed? In or out of the burrows? 



(d) When do they feed? 



(3) Influence of light. Set the jar where one-half of it will 



be in a bright light, and the other side in the dark, 

 or cover one side. Which side of the jar do the earth- 

 worms prefer, the light or the dark side? 



(4) Locomotion. 



(a) Lay the earthworm on a wet paper and note its 



motions. 



(b) Does it accomplish any locomotion? How? 



(c) Can it move backward? If so, just how? 



(d) Try (a), (b), and (c) again, this time placing the 



earthworm on a clean piece of glass. Results. 

 Turn it over on its back. What does it do? How? 



(5) Sensitiveness. 



(a) What portion of the surface of the body is most sen- 



sitive to light? 



(b) Most sensitive to touch? Is any portion not sensitive 



to touch? 



