Intelligence shown by worms in their manner of plugging up their burrows.--If a man had to plug up a small cylindrical hole, with such objects as leaves, petioles or twigs, he would drag or push them in by their pointed ends; but if these objects were very thin relatively to the size of the hole, he would probably insert some by their thicker or broader ends.The guide in his case would be intelligence.It seemed therefore worth while to observe carefully how worms dragged leaves into their burrows; whether by their tips or bases or middle parts.It seemed more especially desirable to do this in the case of plants not natives to our country; for although the habit of dragging leaves into their burrows is undoubtedlyinstinctive with worms, yet instinct could not tell them how to act in the case of leaves about which their progenitors knew nothing.If, moreover, worms acted solely through instinct or an unvarying inherited impulse, they would draw all kinds of leaves into their burrows in the same manner.If they have no such definite instinct, we might expect that chance would determine whether the tip, base or middle was seized.If both these alternatives are excluded, intelligence alone is left; unless the worm in each case first tries many different methods, and follows that alone which proves possible or the most easy; but to act in this manner and to try different methods makes a near approach to intelligence.
In the first place 227 withered leaves of various kinds, mostly of English plants, were pulled out of worm-burrows in several places.Of these, 181 had been drawn into the burrows by or near their tips, so that the foot-stalk projected nearly upright from the mouth of the burrow; 20 had been drawn in by their bases, and in this case the tips projected from the burrows; and 26 had been seized near the middle, so that these had been drawn in transversely and were much crumpled.Therefore 80 per cent.(always using the nearest whole number) had been drawn in by the tip, 9 per cent.by the base or foot-stalk, and 11 per cent.transversely or by the middle.This alone is almost sufficient to show that chance does not determine the manner in which leaves are dragged into the burrows.
Of the above 227 leaves, 70 consisted of the fallen leaves of the common lime-tree, which is almost certainly not a native of England.These leaves are much acuminated towards the tip, and are very broad at the base with a well-developed foot-stalk.They are thin and quite flexible when half-withered.Of the 70, 79 per cent.had been drawn in by or near the tip; 4 per cent.by or near the base; and 17 per cent.transversely or by the middle.These proportions agree very closely, as far as the tip is concerned, with those before given.But the percentage drawn in by the base is smaller, which may be attributed to the breadth of the basal part of the blade.We here, also, see that the presence of a foot- stalk, which it might have been expected would have tempted the worms as a convenient handle, has little or no influence in determining the manner in which lime leaves are dragged into the burrows.The considerable proportion, viz., 17per cent., drawn in more or less transversely depends no doubt on the flexibility of these half-decayed leaves.The fact of so many having been drawn in by the middle, and of some few having been drawn in by the base, renders it improbable that the worms first tried to draw in most of the leaves by one or both of these methods, and that they afterwards drew in 79 per cent.by their tips; for it is clear that they would not have failed in drawing them in by the base or middle.
The leaves of a foreign plant were next searched for, the blades of which were not more pointed towards the apex than towards the base.This proved to be the case with those of a laburnum (a hybrid between Cytisus alpinus and laburnum) for on doubling the terminal over the basal half, they generally fitted exactly; and when there was any difference, the basal half was a little the narrower.It might, therefore, have been expected that an almost equal number of these leaves would have been drawn in by the tip and base, or a slight excess in favour of the latter.But of 73 leaves (not included in the first lot of 227) pulled out of worm-burrows, 63 per cent.had been drawn in by the tip; 27 per cent.by the base, and 10 per cent.transversely.We here see that a far larger proportion, viz., 27 per cent.were drawn in by the base than in the case of lime leaves, the blades of which are very broad at the base, and of which only 4 per cent.had thus been drawn in.We may perhaps account for the fact of a still larger proportion of the laburnum leaves not having been drawn in by the base, by worms having acquired the habit of generally drawing in leaves by their tips and thus avoiding the foot-stalk.For the basal margin of the blade in many kinds of leaves forms a large angle with the foot- stalk; and if such a leaf were drawn in by the foot-stalk, the basal margin would come abruptly into contact with the ground on each side of the burrow, and would render the drawing in of the leaf very difficult.