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to construct its house witli straws and dry grasses, which 

 do not give it that rotundity and compactness so remark- 

 able in the edifices 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 Iiappen to 

 stand in the way, the nest is so contrived 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 nut-hatch (siita 

 Europcea), which live much on hazel nuts ; and yet they 

 open them each in a different way. The first, after rasp- 

 ing 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 Avimble, 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 

 recollection, for days after a concert is over. What I 

 mean the following passage will most readily explain : 



" Praehabebat porr6 vocibus humanis, instrumentisque 

 harmonicis musicam illam avium : non quod ali§ quoque 



