THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
164 
stones ; and such heaps of smooth 
rounded pebbles may frequently be 
seen on gravel-walks. Here there can 
be no question about food. A lady, 
who was interested in the habits of 
worms, removed the little heaps of 
stones from the mouths of several bur- 
rows and cleared the surface of the 
ground for some inches all round. She 
went out on the following night with a 
lantern, and saw the worms with their 
tails fixed in their burrows, dragging 
the stones inwards by the aid of their 
mouths, no doubt by suction. ‘After 
two nights some of the holes had eight 
or nine small stones over them ; after 
four nights one had about thirty, and 
another thirty-four stones.’ One stone 
which had been dragged over the 
gravel walk to the mouth of a burrow 
weighed two ounces ; and this proves 
how strong worms are. But they show 
greater strength in sometimes displac- 
ing stones in a well-trodden gravel- 
walk ; that they do so, may be inferred 
from the cavities left by the displaced 
stones being exactly filled by those 
lying over the mouths of adjoining 
burrows, as I have myself observed. 
“Work of this kind is usually per- 
formed during the night ; but I have 
occasionally known objects to be drawn 
into the burrows during the day. What 
advantage the worms derive from plug- 
ging up the mouths of their burrows 
with leaves, etc., or from piling stones 
over them, is doubtful.” 
I hope that our readers will come to 
the assistance of Charles Darwin, 
Judge Finch and others in trying to find 
out the reasons for this curious plug- 
ging up of the burrows. 
Lectures on Landscape Architecture. 
It is with much pleasure that we call 
attention to a series of informal talks, 
with lantern slides in color, by our good 
friend, Mr. Ernest F. Coe, of New 
Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Coe has ar- 
ranged a delightful list of subjects, in- 
cluding the laying out of landscape and 
garden favorites, gardens everywhere. 
I do not know anybody better 
adapted to present these subjects than 
Mr. Coe. He has a genial, good- 
hearted, pleasing manner that wins 
good will everywhere. He knows his 
subject as the outcome of long experi- 
ence, and possesses the spirit of the 
artist and the naturalist. 
The Funny Man’s Fun. 
Solemn looking Editor Rodemeyer of 
the “Greenwich News and Graphic” is 
generally regarded as the funniest man 
in Fairfield County. The funniest thing 
about him is his delusion that he is 
bald-headed and entitled to be so con- 
sidered. He never misses an oppor- 
tunity to “pick on” editors that excite 
his envy and admiration along that 
line. So he jumped with delight at the 
brief announcement that the editor of 
this magazine had been elected First 
Vice-President of The New York Flute 
Club, and he rolled in ecstatic delirium 
as follows : 
“Thus it goes; every little while an 
unsuspected talent is revealed in the 
versatile Doctor, until the entire 300 
pounds of him seems to be all talent. 
But the disclosure that he is a flute 
player is hardly more startling than the 
incongruity in the whimsical trick of 
the sprite that determines our selec- 
tions, in making a flute player of a man 
whose anatomical architecture plainly 
and admirably fits him for the double- 
bass horn or the big bass drum.” 
The Wrong Color. 
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who 
sat with the American delegation at the 
Conference for the Limitation of Arma- 
ment, went down into the Senate lunch 
room one day and found that his cus- 
tomary place at the table was occupied. 
He took a chair in another corner and 
this gave him a waiter who was unac- 
customed to his order. 
“Bring me a piece of Washington 
pie and a glass of milk,” said the Sen- 
ator, this being his invariable luncheon 
diet. 
In a few minutes the waiter returned 
bearing the milk and a piece of choco- 
late pie. The Senator pushed the pie 
aside. 
“I meant George Washington, not 
Booker,” he said. 
Needed an Aquarium. 
Wrecked Motorist (phoning) — “Send 
assistance at once. I’ve turned tur- 
tle.” 
Voice (from the other end) — “My 
dear sir, this is a garage. What you 
want is an aquarium.” — Burr. 
