ELASTIC-RINGED ANIMALS. 147 
cannot lengthen backwards, because the bristles being 
rubbed the wrong way will not yield, but stick into 
the earth, so that the whole movement is forwards, 
and he makes his way. 
He often assists himself too in another way by 
eating the earth through which he passes ; he has 
no hard jaws like the leech, but a long upper lip with 
which he shovels the earth into himself, sending it 
out afterwards at his tail, and making those curious 
coils of earth which we find on lawns and garden 
paths. His usual food is the animal and vegetable 
matter in the earth, which he absorbs out of it as it 
passes through his body, though it is possible he may 
also sometimes eat the leaves which he is so fond of 
dragging with him underground, leaving the stalks 
sticking out above. The young earthworms are 
hatched underground in cocoons made of earthy mat- 
ter and slime, and as they have no eyes or tentacles 
or other tender organs, they become at once fearless 
miners. Yet they often fall victims at all ages to 
the hedgehog and the mole, and even to their rela- 
tions the leeches if they venture near the water; while 
birds are their mortal enemies. Even if a bird can- 
not succeed in catching a whole worm, yet he will 
often nip off his tail as he is disappearing into the 
earth in the early morning after his nightly rambles. 
As, however, the worm can grow the tail again with- 
out any difficulty, the loss is perhaps not of much 
consequence ; and from his living underground he 
is certainly exposed to fewer dangers than our next 
examples, the seaworms, which are obliged to protect 
themselves in many ingenious ways. 
