nut- 



p A There are three creatures the squirrel, the 



field-mouse, and the nuthatch 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 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. 



G. W. 



196 



