Earthworms have another common name. It is "angleworms." Fishermen often use these worms for bait.
An earthworm's soft body is made up of many "rings" called segments. There may be more than 100 segments in the body of a long worm.
Earthworms cannot live in very dry soil. For they drink through their skin. They breathe through their skin, too.
Robins eat many earthworms. But it is real work for a robin to pull an earthworm out of the ground. On the worm there are bristles that stick into the walls of its burrow. These bristles also help the worm crawl slowly along.
An earthworm actually eats its way through the ground. It makes a burrow and gets food at the same time. The food it gets from the soil is dead plant material. At night an earthworm may put its head out of its burrow to find bits of leaves. It pulls these back into its burrow to eat.
By digging burrows earthworms leave tiny holes which make it easy for air and water to get into the soil. Besides, they make soil finer by grinding it up in their gizzards. They make it richer, too. They are good friends of the farmer.
