ODITIES OF ANIMAL LIFE. 523 



groups and sixty-six spots. On the the 8th I counted only fourteen spots. The 

 weather has been unfavorable since then — now the i8th. 



New Moon occurs January i6th, about 3:00 A. M., and Full Moon on the 

 30th at 11:00 A. M. The Moon passes over and hides for nearly an hour, the 

 star Theta Librae, in the morning of January loth, about 3:00 to 4:00 o'clock. 

 Another phenomenon of considerable interest will occur near 7:00 P. M., Jan- 

 uary 28th, viz.: the passage of the Moon very near a star (Lambda in Gemini) 

 so that the star will appear to pass very near the south edge of the Moon, and 

 may be actually hid for a few moments. In such a case it may be possible, with 

 a good telescope, to see the star disappear and re-appear alternately among the 

 high mountains on that part of the Moon. Such an observation would, at least, 

 be quite interesting. 



Mercury comes to inferior conjunction with the Sun January 3d; and great- 

 est elongation on the 26th, when it will be nearly 25° W. of the Sun, and may 

 be observed as a moving star. Venus is still a Morning Star in the southeast. 

 Mercury will be 1° north of it in the morning of the 24th. Mars is too near the 

 Sun to be visible. Jupiter rises some north of east about 9:00 o'clock January 

 ist; and at 7:00 o'clock on the 31st. So it will be in good position for observa- 

 tion toward the last of the month. Its four moons may be seen with a spy-glass. 

 Saturn is as well situated for evening observation as it can be. It is considerably 

 below and north of Pleiades, forming a triangle with them and Capella. It is 

 three hours high at 6:00 o'clock January ist. Its ring and one moon (Titan) can 

 be seen with a good-sized spy-glass. Uranus is nearly between the stars Eta and 

 Gamma of Virgo, just visible to the naked eye when the sky is clear and Moon 

 absent. Neptune is in a starless region of Taurus, about 8° southwest of Plei- 

 ades. It is quite invisible to the naked eye, and can only be found by the aid of 

 an equatorial telescope. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



ODDITIES OF ANIMAL CHARACTER. 



Mr. J. S. Mill, in his essay on "Liberty," long ago warned us against the 

 stupefying influence of custom upon human beings, and held that we ought to 

 encourage eccentricities in each other, and to guard jealously the right to be ec- 

 centric, instead of insisting on reducing every one by the hard-and-fast Procrus- 

 tean standard to a single dead level of mediocrity. But, whatever our sins may 

 be in this respect toward human beings, surely they are greater still toward the 

 domestic animals. We reduce our horses, so far as possible, to the mechanical 

 condition of locomotive engines— indeed, eccentric horses might involve very 

 serious dangers to life andjimb — our dogs to sentinels, which we drill to a social 



