262 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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, or in some crevice; when, 
standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often 
placed nuts in the chink of a gate-post where nut-hatches 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 practical part of music 
may best inform us why harmony or melody should so strangely 
assist some men, as it were by recollection, for days after the 
concert is over. What I mean the following passage will most 
readily explain :— 
“Prachabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque harmonicis 
musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non delectaretur : sed 
quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in animo continens quzdam, 
attentionemque et somnum conturbans agitato; dum ascensus, 
exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illz sonorum, et consonantiarum 
euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam :—cum nihil tale relinqui 
possit ex modulationibus avium, que, quod non sunt perinde a 
nobis imitabiles, non possunt perinde internam facultatem com- 
movere.”— Gassendus tn Vité Petreshkiz, 
This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing 
my own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, but never 
could so well express. When I hear fine music I am haunted with 
passages therefrom night and day; and especially at first waking, 
which by their importunity, give me more uneasiness than pleasure; 
elegant lessons still tease my imagination, and recur irresistibly to 
my recollection at seasons, and even when I am desirous of 
thinking of more serious matters. 
I am, &c. 
