ANIMAL ACTIVITIES. 
150 
(c) A cross-section of one segment to show the setae 
X 6. 
Taking Food. The earthworm has neither hard 
mouth-parts for biting food nor a tube for sucking. Its 
mouth is simply a hole bounded 
by fleshy lips. The segment in 
front of the mouth forms a sort of 
proboscis or elongated upper lip 
which is used to push the food 
into the mouth. The food con¬ 
sists of fallen leaves or any organic 
matter found in or around its bur¬ 
row. Decaying vegetable matter forms the greater 
part of its food, and if it cannot get decayed leaves it can 
pour out of the mouth a fluid which makes the leaf 
decay and blacken at once. Since the worm gets much 
of its food beneath the surface of the earth, it builds a 
burrow for its home. Such a burrow is a plain hole 
usually slanting from the surface down to a depth of 
four or five feet, always extending below the frost of 
winter. At the bottom of this hole is a small round 
room carefully lined with stones or seeds. In making 
this burrow the worm not only eats the vegetable matter 
Fig. 121.—A Worm’s 
Setae. 
Fig. 122.—Worm-casts. 
in the ground but swallows the earth as fast as he 
excavates it, thus mixing his food with loam. 
Nutrition. The worm has no teeth and no jaws; so 
his food passes down the gullet or oesophagus to an 
enlargement of the alimentary canal called the crop. 
