2JO 



Varieties. 



[FEB. 



Revolution of a Comet. The zeal with 

 which* (he interests of science were forwarded 

 in New Holland, by Sir T. Bresbarie, de- 

 serves the warmest acknowledgments of 

 every liberal mind. Among the most cu- 

 rious results obtained under his patronage, 

 by Mr. Dunlop, at the observatory of Para- 

 matta, may be considered the one arising 

 from the observations on the comet of Au- 

 gust, September, and October 1825, and on 

 the changes which took place in the figure 

 of the tail, tending to establish the existence 

 of a rotation round its axis. The periodic 

 variations in the appearance of the tail, 

 seemed to indicate the time of revolution to 

 be about nineteen and a-half hours. Simi- 

 lar appearances were observed by Le Pere 

 Cyrat, in the tail of the comet of 1618 ; by 

 Hevetius, in the tails of the comets of 1652 

 and J661, and by Pingre", in the tail of the 

 comet of 1769. 



Ornithology. AgeA females of the phea- 

 sant species, who have probably attained the 

 age of five or ten years, not only cease to be 

 prolific, or are so in a very slight degree, but 

 assume a plumage which becomes more and 

 more similar to that of the male the older 

 they grow, so that they resemble males with 

 dull and discoloured plumage, and in some 

 instances the resemblance is absolutely per- 

 fect. The ovary is so much obliterated in 

 many of such females as to be no longer 

 perceptible; the voice too changes at the 

 same time as the plumage, and becomes, as 



has been long known, like that of the male : 

 and the spur itself is not among pheasants 

 the exclusive property of the male, but exists 

 occasionally in the female ; so that a hen 

 pheasant may, after a certain lapse of time, 

 not only become clothed with the exact plu- 

 mage of the male, but acquire all the external 

 characters, the trifling development of the 

 red circumabital membrane remaining the 

 only index of its true sex. To the observa- 

 tions of M. de St. Hilaire it may be added, 

 that Mr, Butler has collected a number of 

 instances, not only among the Gallinae, but 

 al*o among tbe^Palmipedes and Waders, of 

 similar changes; and he thinks that this 

 change is not confined to one, two, or three 

 different species, but that probably the same 

 disposition is common to numbers of the 

 feathered race, and that the change is 

 almost always natural, produced either by 

 the effects of age, of sterility, or other causes, 

 which tend to work some changes in the 

 constitution of birds. Edinburgh Journal. 



Mexican Manuscript, An Italian travel- 

 ler of the name of Beltrami, has discovered, 

 in an old convent in the interior of Mexico, 

 a manuscript, which maybe regarded unique, 

 and of the most rare and interesting descrip- 

 tion. It is the gospel, or rather a gospel 

 such as it was dictated by the first monks, 

 coriquestadores, translated into the Mexican 

 tongue by Montezuma, who, alone, of his 

 family, escaped the massacres of the con- 

 quest, and Ion gre mal grc was converted 

 to the popish faith. It is a large volume in 

 folio, most beautifully written upon Mangey 

 or Agave paper, as highly polished as parch- 

 ment, and surpassing papyrus in flexibility. 

 By this great monument of the ancient 

 Mexican language, the learned, by compar- 

 ing it with the manuscripts in the oriental 

 tongues, may be enabled to throw some 

 light upon the origin of the nations who 

 inhabited these vast countries. 



Method of restoring Wine. A. method 

 of restoring wine that has been turned, has 

 been in practice for some years in France. 

 It consists in adding from half an ounce to 

 two ounces of tartar ic acid to a hectolitre 

 of wine, according to its state of decompo- 

 sition. The tartaric acid reproduces the 

 tartar, disengages the carbonic acid, and 

 consequently destroys the alkaline character 

 given to the wine by the sub-carbonate?. 

 From the impossibility of determining the 

 exact quantity for every case, this method is 

 not always successful. 



POLITICAL OCCURRENCES. 



OUR summary of this month, must of ne- 

 cessity be brief. Nothing of moment has oc- 

 curred scarcely even a probability on which 

 we may venture to speculate. At home, all is 

 pacific; ministers are deservedly popular; 



Mr. Canning, in particular, is the "inter mille 

 rates millesimus," the one paramount idol of 

 his day, to whom all parties bow, with 

 nearly equal admiration; and his late speech, 

 which has since become the fashion in For- 



