OF SELBORNE. 303 
Again, the regular nest of the house-martin is 
hemispheric ; but where a rafter, or a joist, or a 
cornice may happen to stand in the way, the nest 
is so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, 
and becomes flat, or oval, or compressed. 
In the following instances instinct is perfectly 
uniform andconsistent. ‘There are three creatures, 
the squirrel, the field-mouse, and the bird called the 
nuthatch (sitta Europea), which live much on hazel. 
nuts, and yet they open them each in a different 
way. The first, after rasping off the small end, 
splits the shell into two with his long fore’ teeth, as 
aman does with his knife; the second nibbles a 
hole with his teeth, as regular as if drilled with a 
wimble, and yet so small that one would wonder 
how the kernel can be extracted through it; while 
the last picks an irregular ragged hole with its bill ; 
but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm 
while he pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes 
it, as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree orin 
some crevice, when, standing over it, he perforates 
the stubborn shell. We have often placed nuts in 
the chink of a gatepost where nuthatches have been 
known to haunt, and have always found that those 
birds have readily penetrated them. While at work 
they make a rapping noise that may be heard at a 
considerable distance. 
You that understand both the theory and prac. 
tical part of music, may best inform us why har- 
mony or melody should so strangely affect some 
men, as it were by recollection, for days after a 
concert is over. What I mean the following pas. 
sage will most readily explain : 
“ Przehabebat porrd vocibus humanis, instrument. 
