The Moon's Passage over the Meridian.

The Moon will pass the meridian of the Royal Observatory at the following times during this month, which will afford opportunities of observation, if the atmosphere be free from clouds in that direction, viz.

September 4th, at 42 m. after 5 in the evening

5th,

PHENOMENA PLANETARUM.

Phases of Venus.

Sept. 1st, {Obscure part

Illuminated part = 10.620854

= 1.379146

Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites.

The following are the eclipses of the first and second satellites that will be visible this month, viz.

On the 1st of this month, Mercury will be in conjunction with a in Leo, when the planet will be 66' north of the star. The Moon will be in con

junction with a in Scorpio at 4m. after 10 in the morning of the 4th. Georgium Sidus will be stationary on the 6th, and in quadrature at 2 in the afternoon of the 22d. Mercury will be in his superior conjunction at 45 m. after 4 in the morning of the 14th. The Moon will be in conjunction with ß in Taurus at 46 m. after 4 in the morning of the 18th; with a in Leo at 53 m. past 8 of the 23d; and with in Virgo at 26 m. after 8 in the evening of the 27th.

The Naturalist's Diary

For SEPTEMBER 1821.

When is the aspect which Nature wears

The loveliest and dearest? Say, is it in Spring?
When its blossoms the apple-tree beauteously bears,
And birds on each spray are beginning to sing?
Or is it in Summer's fervid pride?

When the foliage is leafy on every side,

And tempts us at noon in the green-wood to bide,
And list to the wild bird's warbling?

Lovely is Nature in seasons like these;

But lovelier when Autumn's tints are spread
On the landscape round; and the wind-swept trees
Their shady honours reluctantly shed:

When the bright sun sheds a watery beam
On the changing leaves and the glistening stream;
Like smiles on a sorrowing cheek, that gleam

When its woes and cares for a moment are fled.

B. BARTON.

SEPTEMBER is, generally, accounted the finest and most settled month in the year. The mornings and evenings are cool, but possess a delightful freshness, while the middle of the day is pleasantly warm and open. October also frequently partakes the character of its precursor. A morning's walk' at this season is replete with gratification to the admirer of Nature's beauties. What a magnificent phenomenon is every day exhibited in the rising of the Sun! yet how common is the observation, that indolence and

the love of sleep prevent a great part of mankind from contemplating this beauteous wonder of the creation!

But see! the flushed horizon flames intense

With vivid red, in rich profusion streamed

O'er Heaven's pure arch. At once the clouds assume
Their gayest liveries; these with silvery beams
Fringed lovely; splendid those in liquid gold,
And speak their sovereign's state. He comes, behold!
Fountain of light and colour, warmth and life!
The King of Glory! Round his head divine,
Diffusive showers of radiance circling flow;
As o'er the Indian wave, up-rising fair,
He looks abroad on Nature, and invests,
Where'er his universal eye surveys,

Her ample bosom, earth, air, sea, and sky,
In one bright robe, with heavenly tinctures gay.

MALLET.

As a companion to this beautiful description, we add a Morning Scene in America,' pourtrayed by a native, Mr. PAULSEN, author of the Backwoodsman,'- before noticed.

Dark was the early dawn, dun vapours chill
Covered the earth, and hid the distant hill;
A veil of mist obscured the struggling day,
That seemed to grope its slow, uncertain way;
No insect chirped, or wakeful twitt'ring bird
Within the copse or briery dingle stirred.
Anon, far in the East, light streaks of red
O'er the gray mists a tint of morning shed,
Brighter and still more bright their hues unfold,
Till all the sky was fringed with burnished gold;
Up rose the gallant SUN! the mists away
Vanished, like spectres, at the dawn of day:
No silence now was in the wakened groves,
For every bird began to chant his loves,
And all the liveried rabble insect crew,
That crawled upon the jewelled earth, or flew,
Mustered their merry notes and frisked away,
In many coloured vestments.

The swallow' now takes its departure for warmer

'On the migration or torpidity of this bird, consult our former volumes.

regions. Many of the small-billed birds that feed on insects disappear when the cold weather commences. The throstle, the red-wing, and the fieldfare, which migrated in March, now return; and the ringouzel, arrives from the Welsh and Scottish Alps to winter in more sheltered situations. It has been supposed that the yellow water-wagtail (motacilla flava) leaves England in the autumn; they certainly congregate on the advance of winter like the swallows, roosting in large flights upon the bushes overhanging some pool; but some never leave their accustomed haunts, and though only occasionally seen, yet immediately as the plough in spring begins to work, and a ray of sun shines out, the motacilla appears pecking about the newly-raised earth. It is rather surprising where these birds can secrete themselves in the ungenial season, as we never hear of their being discovered in any state of concealment. The beautiful yellow which adorns the stomach of the motacilla flava, fades as the summer advances, and, by June or July, no beauty but that of form remains; their feathers, however, regain their bright hue as the autumn advances, and, by the end of September, are in full beauty. These birds are great destroyers of moths; in the hay season they attend the mower through the field, and, as the insect rises before the scythe, it is immediately chased by this active little bird: the exertions and shiftings of the moth to escape, and the perseverance and dexterity of the bird to catch it, are very curious.

It is a remarkable circumstance, that many birds which seek their food by day, and repose during the night, in the season of their progress from region to region, disregard this habit of repose, and travel on during the night: that such is the fact is certain by the arrival of many of our spring visitors unseen. How do our soft-billed birds, the wryneck, willowwren, &c. &c., steal unperceived into our hedges,

and lie there secreted till some call of love' or pleasure betrays their presence.

The fruit or seed of the ash tree, called keys, will be found worthy the attention of those who are fond of the curiosities of Nature. The pod of the fruit is in shape like a bird's tongue, having only one cell that contains a seed of the same shape. By opening the pod carefully with a penknife, the umbilical cord will be found running from the stalk to the upper end of the fruit where it enters to convey the nourishment to the germ, which (on opening it from the reverse end) will discover the future tree, so formed, both in trunk and leaves, as not even to require the assistance of magnifiers to see the perfect plant. No other kernel affords so distinct a resemblance of its parent'.

Rural scenery is now much enlivened by the variety of colours, some lively and beautiful, which are assumed, towards the end of the month, by the fading leaves of trees and shrubs. These appearances are very striking even in our own fine forests, but cannot be compared with the magnificent scenes presented to the eye of the enraptured traveller in the primeval woods which shade the equinoctial regions of Africa and America. See T. T. for 1817, p. 268, and T. T. for 1819, p. 235.

There are in blow, in this month, nasturtia, china aster, marigolds, sweet peas, mignionette, golden rod, stocks, tangier pea, holy-oak, michaelmas daisy, saffron (crocus sativus), and ivy (hedera helix). Among the maritime plants may be named, the marsh glass-wort (salicornia herbacea), and the sea-stork's bill (erodium maritimum), on sandy shores; and the officinal marshmallow (althæa officinalis) in salt

marshes.

1

This circumstance was observed by Mr. Phillips, author of the work on British Fruit, and communicated by him to the Literary Gazette of October 7, 1820.