INSTINCTS AND HABITS OF BIRDS. 203 



cannot imitate. And here let me repeat a short 

 sentence which may be found in good old Izaak 

 Walton's " Complete Angler." He was, like 

 myself, a dear lover of the country, and an 

 admirer of all God's creations. He remarks, 

 in speaking of the nightingale, " He that, at 

 midnight, when the very labourer sleeps se- 

 curely, should hear, as I have done, the clear 

 airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and 

 falling, the doubling t and redoubling of the 

 nightingale's voice, might well be lifted above 

 earth, and say, 'Lord, what music hast thou 

 provided for the saints in heaven, when thou 

 afford est bad men such music upon earth?" : 

 I need not tell you that it is in the calm of an 

 evening in the spring that the nightingale 



" Warbles his delicious notes, 

 As he were fearful that an April night 

 Would be too short for him to utter forth his love- 

 chant." 



I will now mention a favourite bird of mine, 

 not for its song, but for its curious habits. It 

 is called the nut-hatch, for it is able to break 

 both nuts and filberts, in order to get at their 

 kernels. It is about the size of a sparrow, and 

 can run up and down trees with great quickness 3 



