AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, 



S3 



lung perfectly sound, but the right compleicly gorged with blood. The rectum was 

 j^i'oatly dilated and filled with a substance resembling putty, being a deposition of 

 uric acid, which completely obstructed the passage. In form and size this bird re- 

 sembled a female or a young male Black Grouse, to which it was also similar in its 

 internal organization. In plumage and colouring, it was as exactly intermediate 

 between the two species as could be imagined. Hybrids are alleged to be occasion- 

 aUy produced between the Pheasant and Black Grouse ; but we have not seen a 

 specimen, and have reason to think that the birds supposed to be of this character 

 were merely young Blackcocks. 



Anecdote of a Parrot. — A reviewer in the Naturalist relates the following 

 anecdote : — " We feel confident that in various instances Parrots have inteUigence 

 enough to understand, if not the exact meaning of the words they utter, the subject 

 to which they refer. We know an old lady, whose feet were so excessively tender 

 as almost to preclude her from walking, and hence she always went abroad in her 

 Bath chair. She had a favourite Parrot, who, when the tea equipage was placed 

 upon the table, was invariably taken out of his cage by the footman, and placed on the 

 board, as a proper accompaniment to the antiquated china. Poll, no doubt an at- 

 tentive observer, had long perceived there was ' something rotten in the state of 

 Denmark,' and hence, whenever his mistress failed to dole out what he considered 

 his fair ration, he would, in a threatening manner, exclaim, * Peck your toes, Ma- 

 dam.' As he sometimes flew from his position, to put his threat into execution, the 

 old lady, to avoid the assault upon her toes, indulged him with a further allowance, 

 which, of course, only led to increased insolence on his part, and the threat of *■ Peck 

 your toes. Madam,' was still oftener reiterated. At length, one day Poll having 

 ftried * Wolf,' as he thought, without that attention being paid to the subject which 

 it demanded, proceeded to suit the action to the word with such effect, that the old 

 lady was compelled to scream loudly for help, Poll having administered a doze of 

 toe-pecking that put her in dreadful pain for some days. This was too much to be 

 borne, and the culprit received sentence of transpoitatlon. The footman was di- 

 rected to sell or give him away. Now, though in this case we think it highly proba- 

 ble that the mischievous thieat had been taught the bird by the servants, yet Poll 

 must have seen the effect it produced in occasionally increasing his allowance, though 

 doubtless, he did not calculate upon the final denouement." 



BOTANY. 



Rare Plakts found ik Jersey. — Mr William Christy, jun. F.L.S. &c. has 

 communicated to the public, through the medium of Loudon's Magazine of Natural 

 History, a list of rare plants collected by him in the Island of Jersey, in October 

 1836. The greater part of the coast, he states, is composed of granite cliffs, too 

 much washed by the sea to admit of much vegetation, except in some of the sheltered 

 bays. The grassy slopes above them afford several very rare plants. The island is 

 remarkably deficient in streams or pools, as well as in salt marshes ; nor are there 

 many inland rocks. The greatest number of rare species is afforded by the sandy 

 parts of the shore, and by a great deposit of sand drift in the parish of St Brelade, 

 nearly a mile distant from the sea. 



Allium sphsrocephalum. By the road between Beaumont and La Haule. 



Asple7iium lance.olatian. Common. 



Asplenium marinum. Cliffs at Plemont Point and Havre Giffard. 



Borago officinalis. Roadsides and orchards. 



CarJina acaidis. Common. 



Calystegia Soldanella. Sands at Greve de Lecq. 



Centrantkus rubra. Ptocks and walls of Fort Regent. 



Crithmvm maritimum. La Corbiere and Plemont Point. 



Cotyledon umbilicus. Common. 



Cyperus longus. St Peter's Valley, near St Brelade's Church. 



Dianthus proUfer. Near St Ouen's, Quenvais. ^ 



Echium violaceum. Quenvais. Mont le Veau. 



JElyinus arenari^s. 



Erodium cicuturium, white-flowered. St Aubyn's Bay, Fort Quenvais- 



Erodittm maritimum. Greve de Lecq. 



Erodium moschatum. St Aubyn's Bay, Fort Regent. 



Euphorbia Portlandica. Sea shore, all round the island. 



Euphorbia paralias. St Aubyn's Bay. 



Ftemcuhim vvlgare. Near the sea ; not rare. 



Glauciiim fiavum. Quenvais, St Ouen's, Brelade's and St Aubyn's Bavg, 



Gnaphalium Ivteo-albiim. Near Petit Port. 



Hdiajithemum gnttaium. Between La Corbiere and Noirmont Point. 



Hypoehmris glabra. Greve de Lecq. 



Iris fcEiidissima. Sea banks near La Haule. 



Juncus acutus. Quenvais, St Ouen's Bay, and Petit Port. 



Linum avgiisii folium. Common. 



Lotus angustissimus. Between La Kaule and Quenvais. 



Mattldola sinuata. St Ouen's Bay, Petit Port, St Aubvn's Bay, Quenvais. ' 



Marrvbium vulgare. St Brelade's Churchyard, waste places. 



Mentha rotundifolia. Above La Haule. 



Mespilus germanica. Hedges between Roselle and Gorey. 



Neottia spiralis. Quenvais. 



Folycarpnn tetraphyllum. Common in Garden?, &c. 



FetroscUimm saiivum. Mont Orgeuil Ca=tle. 



Scirpus Savii. Between Quenvais and St Brelade's Bay. 

 Scilla autumnalis. Very common. 



Sedum Anglicum. Common. 



Silene Anylica. Common. 

 'Silene conica. Quenvais. 

 Silene nutans. Near St Ouen's, St AubvnV 



Senehiera didy ^a. ' St Helier's, St Aubyn's. 



Solanum Jiiyrum, v^ith red berries. Quenvais, Petit Port. 



Scrophularia Scorodonia. Common. 



Statice plantaginea. Quenvais, St Brelade's Bay. 



Sibthorpia Europaa. Above La Haule. 



GEOLOGY. 



Estimate of the proeakle Temperature in Europe during tbetehtjart 

 Periods. — M. G. P. Deshayes alleges that fossil conchology, studied in a logical 

 manner in its various relations both as to zoology and gRology, may become a power- 

 ful means of bringing this latter science to perfection. Very numerous observations, 

 repeated upon more than eight thousand species of recent and fossil shells, and more 

 than sixty thousand individuals of all regions, have enabled him to perceive import- 

 ant consequences with regard to an approximate estimate of the temperatures of the 

 geological periods, concerning which man cannot cite his historical annals, since he 

 then had no existence upon the surface of the earth. The animals best adapted to 

 indicate temperature are those which, possessed of but small powers of motion, cannot 

 withdraw themselves periodically from the changes of the seasons, and are obliged to 

 sustain all their influence in the places which have given them birth. The greater 

 number of the mollusca and zoophytes are of this kind. At the present day, certain 

 species of the former are found to be peculiar to certain latitudes, some inhabiting the 

 frozen ocean, others the tropical seas ; and from the examination of these it U con- 

 sidered possible eventually to be able to reply to such questions as this : A series of 

 species being given, to point out the climate of the spot from which they have been 

 procured. From comparing all the known species of recent shells, with all those 

 which are brought from the tertiary strata of Europe, the following results have 

 been obtained : — 



1. The tertiary strata of Europe contain no species which can be identified with 

 the secondary strata lying beneath them. 



2. The tertiai-y strata are the only ones which contain fossil specimens of existing 

 species. 



3. The fossil shells which can be identified with Hving species, are more nu- 

 merous in proportion as the strata are more recent, and vice versa. 



4. Constant proportions (3, 19, 52 per cent.) in the number of recent species de- 

 termine the age of the tertiary strata. 



5. The tertiary strata are superposed one upon another, and not parallel, as was 

 at first imagined. 



6- They ought to be divided into three groups or stages, according to their zoo- 

 logy, the shells which they contain indicating the temperature existing at the period 

 of their deposition. 



We are unable here to follow the author in the development of his ideas; but from 

 what he states, it appears to him, that the following conclusions may be drawn: — 



1. The first tertiary period took place under an equatorial temperature; and, ac- 

 cording to all probability, one many degrees hotter than the present temperature of 

 the equator. 



2. During the sei-ond period, the beds of which occupy the centre of Europe, the 

 temperature has been similar to that of Senegal and Guinea. 



3. The temperature of the third period, at first a little more elevated than oui-s 

 in the basin of the Mediterranean, has become similar to that which wo experience. 

 In the north, the species of the north are fossil; in the south, those of the south. 



Thus, since the commencement of the tertiary strata, the temperature has been 

 constantly diminishing. Passing, in our climates, from the equatorial to that which 

 we now enjoy, it is easy to measure the difference. No doubt, naturahsts have 

 been able theoretically to conjecture a priori these changes of temperature; but it 

 is curious to see their conjectures confirmed by a science which no one had thought 

 of directing towards this end. 



METEOROLOGY AND HYDROGRAPHY. 



Meteoric Stones — Several substances of this nature have recently been ex- 

 amined by Professor Berzehus, who has ascertained that meteoric stones are pro- 

 perly speaking minerals, and is of opinion that since they cannot be formed in the 

 atmosphere, which does not contain their component part?, nor be ejected from vol- 

 canoes on the earth's suiface, as they fall every where, they must be derived from 

 some other body having volcanoes. The nearest to us is the moon, which has gigantic 

 volcanoes, and is destitute of atmosphere to retard the masses ejected. The result of 

 his investigations as to the composition of meteoric substances are the following: Two 

 kinds fall on the earth. One of these is rare, for only three acirolites belonging to it 

 have been remarked, viz. those of Stannern in Moravia, and of Jonzac and Juvenas in 

 France, 'i'hey contain no metalHc iron; the minerals of which they consist are more 

 decii^edly crystalline, and magnesia does not form aprevailing component part in them. 

 The second kind includes the other very numerous meteoric stones which have been 

 examined, and which are frequently so similar in appearance, that they might be sup- 

 posed to have been broken from one piece. They contain ductile metallic iron in 

 variable quantity. It being assumed that these substances come from the moon, y/e. 

 may therefore say that meteoric stones come from only two different volcanoes, of 

 which the one either ejects more abundant masses, or sci^ds them forth in such a direc- 

 tion that they reach us more frequently. Such a state of things corresponds perfectly 

 with the idea that a certain portion of the moon has the earth constantly in the zenith, 

 and that all its ejected masses which are thrown out in a straight lim? are directed by 

 it towards the earth, whither, however, they do not proceed in a straight directior, 

 since they are also subjected to that motion which they previously possessed a3 part of 

 the moon. If it is this portion of the moon that sends us meteoric blocks of iron, 

 and if the other parts of the moon do not abound so much in iron, we see a reason 

 why this point should be constantly turned towards the magnetic terrestrial globe. 

 The mineral matter of meteoric stones is composed of the following substances: — 



