688 
ANNUAL REPORT OF.NEW YORK 
EARTH-WORM. DRAWS DEAD LEAVES INTO ITS HOLES. 
similar character are related by Charles Darwin, Esq., in a paper “ On the 
Formation of Mould,” published in the second volume of Proceedings of 
the Geological Society of London, one of which is that of a pasture field 
undisturbed by the plow, and which had received a heavy top dressing of 
lime twelve years and of cinders three years previously. On examination 
lumps of the lime were found, forming a well marked white line at a uni¬ 
form depth of two inches below the surface, and at the depth of one inch 
was a line of black spots, formed by the remains of the cinders; the soil 
below the white line being gravelly and differing very perceptibly' from the 
fine mold above it. Such facts show us what important and valuable 
agents these earth-worms are, in keeping the superficial portion of the soil 
in a most salubrious condition for the growth of vegetation. 
These worms also feed upon dead leaves and other decaying vegetation; 
and hereby they are liable in some cases to become annoying to the gard¬ 
ener. When making my garden a few years since, from among the refuse 
onions remaining in the cellar, a bed of escallions was planted. Soon 
after, I was surprised to find that the onions which had thus been set out 
were pulled over and lying prostrate upon the ground, all of them having 
their dead tops drawn into holes about the size of a goose quill which were 
perforated in the ground; and to enable the tops to be thus turned down 
into these holes, the whole onion had in several instances been drawn two 
or three inches away from the place where it had stood. They were imme¬ 
diately restored to their places, but next morning several of them were 
found again pulled down in the same manner. And thus, for some time 
subsequently, a portion of these onions were reset deeper and with the 
earth pressed more firmly around them, each day, and continued to be 
uprooted by night, several of them perishing from being thus disturbed. 
I was in doubt as to what creature it was that was attacking the onions 
in this manner—drawing the decaying tops into its hole by night that it 
might feed thereon during the day time without exposing itself to observa¬ 
tion. The holes appeared like those of the earth-worm, but I did not deem 
this worm able to grasp bodies of such size as were these onions, and draw 
them along upon the surface of the ground. As it might possibly be somo 
new and strange insect which had arrived and established itself here, I 
resolved to ascertain decisively what it was. Repairing to the spot with 
a lamp at different hours of the night failed to reveal the creature engaged 
in its operations, and I finally determined to trace one of the burrows, by 
digging, until I came to the animal in it. By inserting a straw in one of 
the holes, and crowding it down further and further as I carefully removed 
the earth from around it, I found the hole descended almost perpendicularly 
till it came into very hard compact soil below where the ground had ever 
been disturbed by the garden operations of plowing and spading. At 
length, on reaching a depth of about fourteen inches from the surface, the 
burrow abruptly turned from a perpendicular to a horizontal direction, and 
following it as well as I was able to do at such a depth and in such firmly 
compacted gravel, it here appeared to form one of a multitude of horizontal 
burrows, winding about in every direction, whereby the ground seemed to 
