OF SELBORNE. 
liemifpheric ; but where a rafter, or a joifl, or a cornice, may 
liappen to ftand in the way, the neft is fo contrived as to conform 
to the obftrudion, and becomes flat or oval, or comprelFed. 
In the following inftances inJIinB is perfc(ftly uniform and con- 
fiftent. There are three creatures, the fquirrel, t\\e field- moufi, and the 
bird called the nut-batch, (fitta Europ^a), which live much on hazle- 
nuts ; and yet they open them each in a different way. The firft, 
after rafping off the faiall end, fplits the fhell in two with his long 
fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife ; the feCond nibbles a hole 
with his teeth, fo regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet fo 
fmall that one would wonder how the kernel can be extraded 
through it; while the lafl picks an irregular ragged hole with it's 
bill : but as this artift 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 fome cleft of a tree, or in fome crevice ; when, (landing over 
it, he perforates the ilubborn fliell. Wc have often placed nuts in 
the chink of a gate-poll where nut-batches have been known to 
haunt, and have always found that thofe birds have readily pene- 
trated them. While at work they make a rapping noife that may 
be heard at a confiderable diftance. 
You that underfland both the theory and practical part of mufic 
may beft inform us why harmony or nieloLiy fhould fo ftrangely 
aiFedt fome men, as it were by recoil eftion, for days after a concert 
is over. What I mean the following pafuige will moft readily 
explain : 
'* Prahabebat porro vocibus humanis, inflrumentifque har- 
" monicis muficam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non 
deleclaretur ; fed quod ex muficit humana relinqueretur in 
" animo continens qua;dam, attentionemque et fomnum con- 
" turbans agitatio ; dum afcenfus, exfcenfus, tenores, ac muta- 
N n 2 " tioncs 
