346 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
surface thrusting half the length of his long body 
straight up and looking like the round polished 
stem of some species of squill or lily springing 
miraculously from the earth. Worms, I found, are 
extraordinarily sensitive to earth vibration: thus 
when one walks upon or strikes the ground with a 
stick, they go deeper down; but when the vibra- 
tions come from beneath or from the earth around 
them, they rush to the surface to escape from a 
subterranean enemy pursuing them in their own 
element. On the lawn I never succeeded in making 
the worms rush up to the surface by striking a 
spade or fork into the soil; and when I dug up a 
number of worms from the Jawn and compared 
them with others from the soil outside, I found a 
great difference in them. The lawn worms were 
much smaller and were not nearly so vigorous in 
their movements as the others. The wonder was 
that worms should be found living in such numbers 
in the lawn soil in these somewhat unnatural 
conditions, when just outside the lawn there was. 
a soil easier to penetrate and abundance of decaying 
leaves for them to feed on. 
These incidental observations on earthworms in 
their relation to lawns caused me to regret that I 
had not made a better use of my opportunities of 
studying these creatures on former occasions, as 
it now appeared to me that much yet remains to 
be discovered anent their habits and effect on the 
soil and vegetation. My knowledge of them was 
little more than that of the ordinary person, and 
