184 NATURE STUDY 



LITERATURE 



The stories and poems, illustrating the power of water 

 and frost, already given under these heads are appro- 

 priate here : 



Stony and Rocky, Emilie Poulsson's In the Child's "World. 

 Pebbles, Lovejoy's Nature in Verse. 



ANIMALS 

 Worms : 



One of the earliest signs of spring is the presence in 

 the morning of fresh earthworm castings. They are to be 

 found everywhere, both in the city and in the country, 

 and tell a great deal of the life history of a most inter- 

 esting animal. 



The thin iridescent cuticle of the earthworm is chitin- 

 ous or horny. The rings are much larger in front and 

 rather flattened at the other end, Avhich commonly re- 

 mains in the burrow. Along the back and underneath 

 may be seen blood-vessels. The bristles, by means of 

 which it moves, are arranged in double rows along each 

 side of the ventral surface of the body. Every segment, 

 except the first and last, has four pairs of bristles. 



The popular opinion, that each part of a bisected earth- 

 worm walks off and becomes a new worm, is not true. 

 Only the head portion is capable of regenerating the 

 other part. Although not so low in the scale as this 

 prevalent superstition would indicate, they cannot see or 

 hear, and have only a feeble sense of smell, as Darwin's 

 and Henson's many experiments prove. They show 

 some intelligence in lining their burrows, usually seizing 

 leaves, etc., by their pointed ends. Leaves serve not 

 only to line and to plug the burrow, but also for food. 



