264 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



fices of that little architect. 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 compressed. 



In the following instances instinct is perfectly uniform and con- 

 sistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field-mouse, 

 and the bird called the nut-hatch (sitta Europcea\ which live much 

 on hazel-nut ; and yet they open them each in a different way. 

 The first after rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two 



SQUIRREL. 



with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife \ the second 

 nibbles a hole with his teeth, so regular as if drilled with a wimble, 

 and yet so small that one could 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 stand- 

 ing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often 

 placed nuts in #_ chink of a gate-post where nut-hatches have 



