372 ARTICULATA. ANNELIDA. 



which, the head is again advanced. By a process 

 exactly similar, the animal burrows in the earth ; 

 the head being lengthened out to a fine point is 

 inserted into very minute orifices, or between very 

 close particles ; a hold being thus obtained for the 

 bristles, the contraction of the body forcibly swelling 

 the rings in proportion to their shortening, enlarges 

 the passage, and thus the Worm is enabled rapidly 

 to move through a substance which would seem, at 

 first sight, to present an impenetrable obstacle to its 

 soft and yielding body. 



The Earth-worm subsists upon decaying animal 

 and vegetable substances, which are received into 

 the stomach mixed with much earth. We lately 

 were much interested in observing- one taking its 

 food ; a few details of which may not be unaccept- 

 able. It was on an evening in May, at which time 

 they chiefly begin to come out of their holes : the 

 animal was much lengthened, the tail only just 

 keeping possession of the mouth of its hole. The 

 head, protruded into a long sharp point, was pushing 

 about apparently in search of something, and now 

 and then the under part of it was pressed to the 

 earth and dilated. On close observation, we found 

 that minute fragments of dry stalks, &c. were drawn 

 in ; the mouth opened by the turning inside-out of 

 a thick fleshy margin, and the orifice was applied to 

 the fragment, then the lip being drawn in again, the 

 substance was swallowed. Sometimes it would thus 

 seize a slender stalk, a quarter of an inch long, by 

 the end, and suck it in gradually but quickly, 



