No. 491] 



EARTHWORMS 



713 



In some places the heaps were not more than a foot apart, but 

 elsewhere they were more sparsely scattered. When any heap 

 was dug up it was found to be a mass of samaras, bound together 

 with earth and some few fibers, probably dead grass. 



The ground about some of the collections of niajile tree seeds 

 was markedly free from seeds and clean, so that it seemed as if the 

 worms had reached out of their burrows to nearly their full length 

 of eight or nine inches and dragged back all the seeds they could find 

 in a circular area of which their stretched out bodies made the 

 radius. All this was much more evident in the areas close to the 

 tree trunks wdiere there was little or no grass, while far out from 

 the tree trunks, where the grass w^as thick, the heaps of seeds were 

 smaller and not so evident, both because of the grass and because 

 there was a more uniform distribution of seeds with a less perfect 

 cleaning up of the neighborhood of each heap. 



The earthworms' holes were completely closed by the samaras 

 and earth. When about an inch deep of earth and seeds had been 

 removed the open buriow w as seen as a clear hole about as big as a 

 pencil. An imaginary section <lo\vn through a heap of seeds 

 would show a low cone made of seeds imbedded in earth, covered 

 with some dry, free seeds on the surface, the whole rising an inch 

 or more above the normal surface of the ground and of the upper 

 end of the earthworms' burrow. 



It was not determiiied what sjx'cies of earthworm matle the 

 collections of maple see. Is. d1ie tew small red earthworms found 

 in some cases lying ui amongst die seeds and moist earth that 

 plugged the burrows, prohahlv hail notiiing to do with the making 

 of the burrows or with the coUectniij of .seeds, though thev may 

 have profited by the moist veuetable food and other coniHtions 

 found in these heaps. 



The samaras were for the most part buried that the (lat win- 



Muiaia l.Vthe llai u.nt: and <ha-,d n uiiii tin. pait toH-no.r. 

 ^^hlK the'.aniaia. hnii: 1..0M up..n tin uionn.lud, ail nua< t and 

 n<.t injnr<Ml nianx <.t iIu-m' niM.h the h< ap> \NeH> liau d and tia//led 

 so that the .shorter side ct tlu^ wniu' otien looked ld<e a comb. 



