The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-25 00:00:00

HUNTING APPOINTMENTS

FOR TUE PRESENT WEEK.
The Earl of Derby's Stag-hounds meet on Friday, at
Banstead, at 10.
The 11. H., meet on Wednesday, at Bramdean Com-
mon ; Thursday, at Herriard Common ; Saturday, at
Kempshot Park-10.
Mr. Muir's Hounds, on Friday, at Stowlangtoft Church
—half-past 10.
The Vine Hounds, on Wednesday, at Paul's Wool ;
Saturday, at Sherborn St. John-10. '
The Blackmoor Vale Hounds, on Friday, at Yarnfield
Common, near the Bradley Woods.
The Marquis of Cleveland's Fox-hounds, on Wednesday,
at Thornborough Bar ; Friday, at Bedale ;• Saturday, at
Sleningford Park-11.
The Lambton Fox-hounds, on Wednesday, at Murton-
le-Whins ; Friday, at Brancepeth ; Saturday, at Cocken

The Hurworth Fox-hounds, on Friday, at Neasham-1 0.
The New Union Harriers (Suffolk), on Friday, at
Tressingfield, Swan, to run a doe:-11.
Mr. Long Wellesley's Forest Stag Hounds, on Saturday,
at Kennel, "to turn out the Wiltshire stag—half-pastlo.

BLUMENBACH'S , MANUAL Of NATURAL

HISTORY.

(From the London Medical Gazette.)

In an interleaved copy of this work, which was
used by an eminent philosopher whilst attending
Blumenbach's Lectures, we find a few manuscript
notes which may amuse our readers, and be of
use to the editor of a future edition of the work.
We shall extract them, affixing the number of
the paragraph, and the subject to, which each
note relates.

§ 16. INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON THE FORMS

OF ANIMALS.

Little birds fed in chambers constantly on hemp-seed,
become black. There is no more striking instance of de-
generation than the common cock and hen, compared with '
the original in India. The wild canary is brown and
green, and it has not been in Europe for three hundred
years. There are some with plumes on the head : such
is the bird in a state of nature. Between the skull of a
Negro and a European the difference is little, indeed, com-
pared with the difference between that of the wild and do-
mestic swine. In 'Syria, animals, goats, cats, rabbits,
acquire a beautiful long silk hair.
§ 17. NUTRITION.
The elephant is purely a graminivomus animal, an&
therefore composed entirely of metamorphosed grass. What
a miracle ! Rabbits, which are warm-blooded animals,
and caterpillars, whose fluids are white, both can .exist
their whole life on cabbage. This is still more wonderful
in plants of. various kinds, which grow in the same bed,
perhaps, in which the nutriment is converted, in one
instance into rile, in another into wormwood, in another
into peas.

§ 19. REPTODUCTIOX.
Saw at Blumenbach'S four 'sea-stars, 'one perfect--=the
other with four rays only, another with three, and the
last had lost all but one ray ; but all were in a state of re-
producing the lost parts. The last had therefore lost four-
fifths of its frame.

§ 20.. GENERATION. •
In the, animalcule of infusions the shape is oval—then
comes a furrow ; this furrow gets deeper and deeper, and
the points of junction smaller and smaller, till they divide,
and thus become two creaturrs. The same is the case with
the bell-forined polypus, and then the furrow is longitudinal.

§ 21. TIIE 'NATURAL ACE OF STAN.
Blumenbach thinks eighty-four the natural close of life;
is reasons lie did not give.

25. VoicE.
Voice is attributed to such animale only as have lungs;
lungless animals are either dumb, or, at most, sound, not
voice, is attributable to them. The hissing of the rattle-
snake is voice, his rattle is only sound, , 'Some fishes have
sound—none voice. •

§ 32. HIBEtqI'ATION.
Of the hamster, opened rapidly and neatly during its
winter sleep, the heart beat& only fifteen times in a minute.
When the venni animal is opened in summer, the heart
beats one hundred and fifty times in a minute, so deep is
their.winter sleep. As for the length of it, in the Blanche,
an ice-valley, covered with ice, all but a few.spots that
are melted appear little islets of green, but never longer
than, eight weeks in a year. Here are marrots that slepp
all the rest of the year except July and August.

One night last week a farm house, in the
parish of Kippen, was entered by a window, and 103/.
part of the payment of the farmer's produce, taken out of
a drawer. Two individuals were sleeping in the apart-
ment at the time; and in one adjoining, a young couple sat
•a' wooing," but who, it seems, were too much taken up
with thei► own concerns to be in a listening mood for the
entrance of • thieves.— Cakdonian Mercury.'
We understand that it is in contemplation to
apply to Parliament for an Act to cut a canal from the
river Don, at Bailey, near Doncaster, to open a communi-
cation with the river Trent. The proposed cut would pass
through the Corporation Lands, by way of Rossington
'Bridge, and through the townships of Cantley, Awkley,
and Finningley, in a line to join the Vicker-Dike, which
empties itself into the river Trent, at Stockwith; about four
miles below Cainsbro'. Should this project be carried into
effect it would afford great facility to the conveyance of
merchandise from the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham
to Wakefield and the adjacent manufacturing districts.—
Leeds Mercury.

In consequence of the late rains, the river
Taff, in this county, has been flooded 'for several successive
days to an extraordinary, degree; in consequence of which,
on Wednesday last, the centre pier of Cardiff-bridge gave
way, carrying)vitli it part,of the parapet on the north side,
and it is now impassible for carriages, &c. The mail and
other coaches are obliged to retrograde on arriving at Car-
diff, and can only get to the Cowbridge-roan by a circuitous
route through Llandaff, and from thence to Ely. Consi-
derable damage has been done to the works of H. BLAKE-
MORE, Esq. at Pentyrch, tl'e • embankment having been
carried away. The Merthyr mail did not arrive at Car-
diff on Wednesday, the road being flooded for a considerable
distance at Nantgarrw, and the bags were conveyed by
man and horse along the canal bank from Newbridge.
Cambrian.

NATURAL CURIOSITY.—There is to be seen
in the neighbourhood of Kippen, a partridge which seems
to have forsaken her companions in the field to associate
with the barn-door fowls of an adjoining farm. It is not,
a little singular to see her come in the morning to feed
along with the fowls, and after spending, the whole day hi
their domestic circle, retire in the evening to her native
wilds. So unusual an occurrence has attracted consider-
able attention ; and it is worthy of remark, that when the
shades of evening induce the fowls to roost—the partridge,
though it has never 'yet entered the poultry-house, makes
every 'exertion to detain its inmates from retiring to rest.
—Stirling,Journal. ,