OF SELBOENE. 289 



martin is hemispheric ; but where a rafter, or a joist, or a 

 cornice may happen to stand in the way, the nest is so con- 

 trived as to conform to the obstruction, and becomes flat or 

 oval or compressed. 



In the following instances instinct is perfectly uniform 

 and consistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the 

 field-mouse, and the bird called the nuthatch (Sitta europcea) ,* 

 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 work- 

 man, 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 nuthatches have been known to haunt, 

 and have always found that those birds have readily pene- 

 trated 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, aa it were by recollec- 

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

 following passage will most readily explain : 



" Prsehabebat porro vocibus humanis instrumentisque 

 harmonicis musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non 

 dclectaretur; sed quod ex musica humana relinquerctur in 



of those of a more sombre description in the neighbourhood of London 

 be intended to answer the same purpose, namely, to render the nests 

 secure from observation ? ED 



1 The Scandinavian nuthatch, described by Linnaeus (" Syst. Nat." i. 

 p. 177,) as Sitta europcea, differs from that found in Great Britain, and 

 the latter, therefore, should be distinguished as Sitta cccsia, that being 

 the oldest name applied by Meyer (** Taschenb. Deutsch. Vogel," i. p. 

 128) to the aip<e bird as observed in Germany. ED. 



U 



