true north, and about 16° above the horizon, having ascended towards the pole star more than half a degree a day, and receded nearly as much from Capella towards the west; so that by referring its place to a celestial globe, it was found about 20 from the three small stars below the left shoulder of the con-` stellation Lynx. The appearance at Paris about the 6th seems to have been very brilliant, as the French astronomers considered its nucleus, at that time, better defined than that of any former comet. On the 9th of July, only six days after it was first seen, the comet had passed over 90 degrees of its orbit from the point of the perihelion, and was then twice the distance of that point from the Sun, and its heliocentric longitude at that time near the beginning of Aries, and its latitude, as seen from the Sun, nearly at its maximum.

About this time its telescopic appearance became very irregular; as it sometimes appeared equal to Saturn in magnitude, and at others not larger than a small star. Ön the 10th, its brilliancy was scarcely affected by the light of the Moon, which had only passed her full two or three days before; but its tail presented extraordinary changes, radiating like coruscations, with great rapidity.

Ten days after its first appearance, that is, on the 13th of July, the observations at the Royal Observatory furnish the following data: viz.

Mean time of observation

Right ascension in time
North declination

Longitude

North latitude

h. m.

S.

12 4 29.3

7 28 34.5

51° 7' 31" 3s. 15 40 15

28 51 30

It had made considerable progress in its course by the 15th of the month, approaching Ursa Major, but keeping to the west of it. Its nucleus was still bright, and its path appeared to lead to the evening position of the comet of 1811.

From a series of observations, continued at all fa

vourable opportunities, and especially taken in many instances when the comet was on the meridian, it was soon found that all the above data were constantly increasing, by small daily increments. On the 26th of July, they had attained to the following magnitudes: viz.

Some of the French astronomers, in particular, attempted to calculate the elements of its orbit, or at least to make approximations towards that object, from some of the early observations; but the numbers which have been stated as the results of these computations, undertaken by MM. Nicollet and Bouvard, neither agree with each other, nor with the elements of the orbit of the late comet, as deduced from a longer continued series of the most perfect observations.

The elements which have been ascribed to M.

Nicollet are,

Perihelion distance

Inclination of the orbit

1.12567
88° 38'

Longitude of the ascending node

Place of the perihelion on the orbit

Those attributed to M. Bouvard are,

Perihelion distance

Inclination of the orbit

Longitude of the ascending node
Longitude of the perihelion

Can these elements belong to the orbit of the same comet?

The elements of the orbit have also been since calculated from the observations made at the Royal Observatory, at Greenwich, and which differ essentially from both these. The series of these observations that have been printed, were continued from the 3d

to the 26th of July, inclusive, and therefore embraced a period of 24 days; and eight of these observations were made when the comet was on the meri dian, and consequently in the most favourable position for the purpose. The observations were doubtless continued subsequently to the 26th, but, as these are not included in the printed list, we are unable to specify either their number or the results. Those above stated, however, are sufficient to give the elements of the orbit with considerable accuracy. These are the following: viz.

For a variety of interesting particulars relative to these wandering bodies, we must refer to the volume of TIME'S TELESCOPE for 1817.

The Naturalist's Diary

For MARCH 1820.

The winter's past,

Behold the singing of the birds is now,
Season benign; the joyous race prepare
Their native melody, and warbling airs
Are heard in ev'ry grove: the flowers appear,
Earth's smiling offspring, and the beauteous meads
Are clothed in pleasant green. Now fruitful trees
Put forth their tender buds, that soon shall swell
With rich nectareous juice, and woo thy hand
To pluck their ripened sweets.

THE superabundant moisture of the earth being dried up, the process of vegetation is gradually brought on: those trees which, in the last month, were budding, now begin to put forth their leaves; and the various appearances of nature announce the approach of SPRING,

As Spring parades her new domain,
Love, beauty, pleasure, bold her train;
Her footsteps wake the flowers beneath,
That start, and blush, and sweetly breathe:
Her gales on nimble pinions rove,

And shake to foliage every grove;
Her voice, in dell and thicket heard,
Cheers on the nest and mother bird;
The ice-locked streams, as if they felt
Her touch, to liquid diamond melt;
The lambs around her bleat and play-
The serpent flings his slough away,
And shines in orient colours dight,
A flexile ray of living light.
Nature unbinds her wintry shroud
(As the soft sunshine melts the cloud),
With infant gambols sports along,
Bounds into youth, and soars in song.
The Morn impearls her locks with dew;
Noon spreads a sky of boundless blue;
The rainbow spans the evening scene;
The night is silent and serene,
Save when her lonely minstrel wrings
The heart with sweetness while he sings.

MONTGOMERY.

The melody of birds now gradually swells upon the ear. The throstle (turdus musicus), second only to the nightingale in song, charms us with the sweetness and variety of its lays. The linnet and the goldfinch join the general concert in this month, and the golden-crowned wren (motacilla regulus) begins its song. The lark also must not be forgotten. The melody of this little creature continues during the whole of the summer. It is chiefly, however, in the morning and evening that its strains are heard; and as it chaunts its mellow notes on the wing, it is the peculiar favourite of every person who has taste to relish the beauties of nature at the most tranquil seasons of the day, particularly at dawn.See some interesting particulars of this bird in T.T. for 1817, p. 76, and the "Captive Lark," in our last volume, p. 79.

H

In this month, rooks build and repair their nests. Rooks, crows, and pigeons, but the first in particular, it has been proved, are by no means so detrimental to the farmer as is generally imagined, though many of them still commit great havoc among these birds, and use every means in their power to frighten them away'. A pleasing little poem on this subject has been privately printed and circulated among his friends, by its noble author, LORD ERSKINE, in whose distinguished life one of the most brilliant features is, his long exerted zeal in the cause of the suffering animal creation. The poem was occasioned by his lordship's having, at the instance of his bailiff in Sussex, complained to a neighbour of his rookery, the only one in that part of the country; but having been afterwards convinced of the utility of rooks, he countermanded his complaint, and wrote the "FARMER'S VISION," from which the following lines are extracted,

Know, then, since man's disastrous fall,
He still, though sovereign lord of all,
Must share, by the Supreme decree,
With creatures of the land and sea,
Whatever lands or seas produce,
The gifts of Heaven for common use:
Though Man subdues the stubborn soil,
Their portion is not therefore spoil;
What are their rights, their instincts prove,
Beyond whose bounds they cannot move,
But all the ample range within
Became their own by Adam's sin;
From thence arose a deadly sting,
Infixed in every living thing:

But Heaven, its mercy still to show,
Palsied this else descructive foe,
By forging an unbounded chain
Of dying and of life again-

First the mute plants enjoy their hour,
They live in the consummate flower,

See T. T. for 1816, pp. 86, 87.