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BRITISH ANNELIDS.
drier places, coiled up in a state of quiescence, and perfectly clean
within and without.
6. I need mention only one other favourite habitat. In passing
through pasture land it is well to overhaul the dry droppings, the
stones or boulders which are large enough to keep the grass from
growing, and the decaying timbers, old logs, unbarked trees, and
other similar harbourers of uncanny creatures. Here will be found
the purple worm, the green worm, the red head, marsh worm, and
gilt-tail, with perhaps one or two others.
It will be seen that there are few places where worms may not be
sought with some reasonable hope of discovering sufficient to afford
one occupation for many days to come. It will perhaps be well to
indicate here how worms should be prepared for future use. The
process is simple. The collector should carry with him a tin box
or two containing a sufficient quantity of soft, damp, clean moss, to
fill the receptacle loosely. It would be well for the beginner to have
a separate box for each locality, duly numbered or labelled, so that
he might have a means of learning what worms were peculiar to
certain habitats. After keeping the worms a short time in the moss,
to clean and scour, they should be carefully removed one by one,
with as little rubbish as possible, and put into an old tumbler half
filled with water. When all the worms from the tin are transferred
to water, a little common salt should be dropped in if it is intended
to preserve them for future use. This causes them to empty their
canal of excrement, which would otherwise greatly interfere with
section cutting. Let the worms now be transferred to another glass
of pure water, leaving the refuse behind. If it is necessary to
examine the worms alive, in order to note their colours and other
external characteristics before they are changed by the preservative
medium, let a little methylated ether be dropped into the water.
This quiets without paining them, and soothes any slight irritation
caused by the salt. They can now be examined on a plate, sketches
or drawings taken, the colours imitated, and the worm transferred to
weak spirits. This will kill the creature, while it is still in a comatose
or unconscious state—for of all things in the world a naturalist must
avoid giving even a worm a needless pang—and, finally, it can be
placed in strong spirits for permanent preservation.
(To be continued.)