Ornithology.— 'Nutritive Suhttances. — JPerpetual Motion, 313 



they conveyed no nutriment to the tree, but were supported by 

 it. At length they dipped into the earth, and have since enabled 

 the tree to grow with vigour. Between the top of the wall and 

 the surface of the earth they have never thrown out either 

 branches or leaves, but have coalesced round the wall into a sort 

 of trunk, pretty thick, and of considerable compactness. 



ORNITHOLOGV. 



A few weeks ago a pair of grosbeaks (Loxia CocothrcCustes) 

 were shot in a field belonging to Mr. Beaufoy at Upton Gray 

 in Hampshire. This bird is very uncommon in the south of 

 England, and was probably attracted into the neighbourhood of 

 Upton Gray by the plantations of pine and fir. The above two 

 specimens were shot out of a small flock consisting of six or 

 seven. 



LONGEVITY. 



The following circumstance may be interesting to those who 

 inquire into the causes of longevity : 



A gentleman of considerable research lately made a catalogue 

 of near eight hundred persons \\'\\o had attained a great age, and 

 found their habits of life only to agree in one particular, namely, 

 early rising in the morning. This confirms the well-known result 

 of a similar inquiry made by one of our learned Judges. 



COMPARATIVE NUTRITIVE SUBSTANCES. 



A table with a sliding scale, exhibiting the proportionate nu- 

 tritive powers, and intended to answer an indefinite number of 

 questions, chiefly for agriculturists, similar to Dr. Wollaston's 

 table of chemical equivalents, has been issued by Dr. Paris. 

 According to the common opinion, wheat is placed as a more 

 nutritive substance than the oat, probably from its containini? a 

 large proportion of vegeto-animal matter not in the oat. We 

 believe this arrangement, however, is rather contradicted by ex- 

 perience. In Derbyshire the labourers in the mines have de- 

 clared that they could not perform their severe labour at all, or 

 at least so well, if fed on wheaten instead of oaten bread ; and it 

 has been found by experiment, that a horse, a superior hunter to 

 another horse, became inferior by feeding him with wheat, while 

 by returning to oats he recovered his superiority. 



PERPETUAL MOTION. 



M. Maillardet of Neufchatel announces, in a foreign journal, 

 that he has succeeded in dissolving the celebrated problem of 

 perpetual motion, so long regarded as a scientific chimera. The 

 piece of mechanism to which he applies his principle is thus 

 described : — It is a wheel, around the circumference of which' 



there 



