OF SELBORNE. Ill 



to itself; so that a school-boy would at 

 once pronounce on the sort of nest before 

 him. This is the case among fields and 

 woods, and wilds ; but, in the villages 

 round London, where mosses and gossamer, 

 and cotton from vegetables, are hardly to 

 be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not 

 that elegant finished appearance, nor is it 

 so beautifully studded with lichens, as in 

 a more rural district; and the wren is 

 obliged to construct its house with straws 

 and dry grasses, which do not give it that 

 rotundity and compactness so remarkable 

 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 happen to stand in 

 the way, the nest is so contrived as to con- 

 form to the obstruction, and becomes flat 

 or oval, or compressed. 



In the following instances instinct is per- 

 fectly uniform and consistent. There are 

 three creatures, the squirrel, the field -mouse, 

 and the bird called the nut-hatch ( sitta 

 EuropcB ), which live much on hazel-nuts ; 



