232 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Europaea), 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 in two 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 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 affect some men, as it were by recollec- 

 tion, for days after a concert is over. What I mean the 

 following passage will most readily explain : 



" Praehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque 

 harmonicis musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque 

 non delectaretur ; sed quod ex musica humana relinquere- 

 tur in animo continens quaedam, attentionemque et 

 somnum conturbans agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, 

 tenores, ac mutationes illae sonorum, et consonantiarum 

 euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam : — cum nihil tale 

 relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, quae, quod non 

 sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt perinde 

 internam facultatem commovere." — Gassendus in Vita 

 Peireskii. 



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 ; 



