EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



251 



There are no occultations of stars by the moon of 

 a greater magnitude than the 6th : — 



Eclipses of Jupiter's satellites at Greenwich : — 

 On the 2nd, at 2h. 57ru. 49s. a.m., 2nd moon reappears. 

 On the 7th, at Ih. 51m. 57s. a.m., 1st moon reap- 

 pears. On the 8th, at 7h. 20m. 42s. p.m., 1st moon 

 reappears. On the 11th, atSh. 9m. 54s. p.m., 3rd moon 

 reappears. On the I2th, at 6h. 52m. 24s. p.m., 2nd 

 moon reappears. On the 14th, at 2h. 46m. 49s. a.m., 

 1st moon reappears. On the 15th, at 9h. 15m. STs. 

 p.m., 1st moon reappears. On the 18th, at 8h. 50m. 

 23s. p.m., 3rd moon disappears. On the 19th, at 

 12h. 10m. 8s. a.m., 3rd moon reappears. On the 19th, 

 at 9h. 28m. 53s. p.m., 2nd moon reappears. On the 

 21st, at Ih. 45m. 40s. a.m., 4th moon disappears. On 

 the 22nd, at llh. 10m. 393. p.m., 1st moon re- 

 appears. On the 26th, at 12h. 50m. 5s a.m., 3rd moon 

 disappears. On the 27th, at 12h. 6m. 17s. a.m., 2nd 

 moon reappears. 



At 11 p.m., meantime, on the 14thand 21st, the first 

 satellite is on the disc of Jupiter, and on the 17th, at 

 the same hour, the second satellite is on the disc. 



E. J, Lowe. 



THINaS OF THE SEASON— FEBEUAET. 



FOB VAEIOUS LOCALITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Birds Arriving. — Occasional flights of Hooper 

 Swans, and other water-fowl, but no distinct arrivals 

 of migratory birds. 



Birds Departing. — Gray Lagg, Bemacle, Laugh- 

 ing, and Brent Geese ; Goosander ; Pin-tailed, Scaup, 

 Velvet, Black, and Eider Ducks; Gadwell, Black- throated 

 and Red-throated Divers ; Wild Swan ; Common, Bar- 

 tailed, and Green-shanked Godwits; Sea Curlew, 

 White-headed Smew, Silktail, Sanderling, Golden 

 Plover, Golden-eyed Pocher, Stock Dove, Dartford 

 Warbler, Mountain Finch, Siskin, Lesser Guillemot, 

 Knot, Purre. 



Insects. — Hydrophilus caraboides, Berosus luri- 

 dus, Dermestes lardarius, 7-spotted Ladybird, Meal- 

 worm Beetle, Orange Upper Wing, February Carpet. 



Wild Plants in Flower. — Snowdrop, Stinking 

 Bear's-foot, Great Henbit, Whitlow Grass, Groundsel, 

 Common Furze, Colt's-foot, Dandelion, Hepatica, 

 Mezereon, Primrose, Creeping Crowfoot, Butcher's- 

 broom. 



jMTjsToteworthy'sCM 



orner. 



Opticvi. Phenomenon. — There is "a somewhat 

 curious optical phenomenon to be seen in the chapel 

 attached to the cemetery at Tottenham, and probably 

 in other buildings, whose windows are similarly con- 

 structed, which has not, that we are aware of, been 

 hitherto described or explained. In the middle of the 

 windows there is a lozenge-shaped casement opening. 



through which, when open, the sky, trees, clouds, and 

 houses appear of a bluish tint. This appearance 

 may be explained in the following manner : — It is 

 well known that every colour has what is called its acci- 

 dental, or complementary colour, or that colour which, 

 together with a given colour, vrould form white light. 

 Thus, if the eye looks steadily at a red wafer on a 

 sheet of white paper, it will, when turned away from 

 the wafer, see the image of a green wafer. If the 

 wafer were blue, it would afterwards see the image of 

 an orange wafer. If it were orange-coloured, it would 

 afterwards see the image of a blue one, and so on. 

 Now the glass of the chapel-windows is of an orange- 

 yellow tint, hence the general light inside the chapel 

 is of an orange-yellow colour, and, therefore, the eye 

 through the uncoloured opening sees the landscape 

 outside tinted with the accidental or complementary 

 colour of orange-yellow, which is blue. If the glass 

 were green, the landscape would appear of a reddish 

 tint, and so on. It is also a curious fact, that whea 

 the sun shines through the opening, it gives the dif- 

 ferent objects on which it shines a blue tint, which is 

 to be explained in the same way. Perhaps the above 

 phenomenon might suggest the idea of forming a 

 philosophical toy, for explaining and showing some of 

 the properties of light, by fixing coloured glasses, 

 with a small hole in the middle, at the end of a tube. 



Hunt's Cinephantic Colour-Top. — Mr. Note- 

 worthy has read with much interest a paper on this 

 invention read by Mr. Edmund Hunt before the Phi 

 losophical Society of Glasgow on the 16th of Novem- 

 ber last, and which is printed in the society's pro- 

 ceedings. This colour- top is distinct from Mr. Gor- 

 ham's, and, according to Mr. Hunt's view of its action, 

 Mr. Gorham is wrong in the explanation he gives of 

 the rationale of the phenomena produced by the 

 Kaleidoscopic Top. It is impossible to condense the 

 substance of Mr. Hunt's paper into a paragraph, and 

 Mr. Noteworthy recommends all who take a practicfil 

 interest in the subject to obtain the full text of Mr. 

 Hunt's essay. He thinks well of Mr. Goodchild's 

 clockwork, to which, nevertheless, he would make 

 additions, so as to produce the same efi'ect as those 

 which result from the so-called " rapid and regular 

 jerks," by " applying a perfectly continuous motion 

 to the loose disc." He thinks Mr. Goodchild's Top 

 should be made with frictional wheels instead sf 

 toothed wheels, and that " the best application of 

 wlieelwork would be to reproduce the experiments 

 on a large scale, and with the discs vertical, so as to 

 be seen by a large audience. The experiments might 

 also be exhibited by the magic lantern." 



The New Intrx-Mercurial Planet. — Much in- 

 terest is now being felt, in the astronomical world, on 

 account of the supposed discoverj"^ of a new inferior 

 planet revolving round the sun, within the orbit of 

 Mercury. Public attention was first drawn to the sub- 

 ject by a communication forwarded to the Academy of 

 Sciences at Paris, in September last, by M. Le Verrier, 

 in which he announced that a certain error in the peri- 

 helion element of Mercury's orbit could only be ex- 



