Miscellaneous, f® 



EsTRiLDA RUFOPiCTA. Estv. supeme fusctt, froute, facie, guld, et 

 pectore cum tectricibus caudcE vinaceis ; hoc colore corpore religuo 

 inferiore, et caudcB superne tinctis ; alarum tectricibus inferioribus 

 flavido-albis ; guttis minutissimis perpaucis albis apud pectus ; 

 rostro rubro, culmine nigro. 



Long. tot. 3| poll.; rostri, J; alse, IJ; caudse, If; tarsi, ^. 



Hab. Cape Coast. 



Ixos iNORNATUs. Ix. fuscus. Capitis et cauda colore intensiore ; 



corpore subtus sordide albescenti-fusco. 

 Long. tot. 8 poll. ; rostri, f ; alse, 3| ; caudse, 3^ ; tarsi, |. 

 Hab. Cape Coast. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



DESTRUCTION OF TREES BY SCOLYTUS. 



M. Robert has written to the French Academy of Sciences re- 

 specting some observations which he had made on trees attacked by 

 Scolyti, and on several elms in particular of the grand avenue of the 

 Champs Elysees. "These trees," says he, "appear to be in a good 

 state of vegetation ; their leaves fall neither earlier nor quicker than 

 those of the neighbouring trees which have been less damaged by 

 the insects ; and nevertheless, if the bark of the trunk be examined 

 carefully, it will be seen that at about a metre from the soil a circu- 

 lar band of this bark, from two to three metres in breadth, is not 

 only completely killed in consequence of the ravages of the Scolytus, 

 but that the liber is also destroyed and converted into humus, and 

 perhaps even the liburnum has begun to be altered." — ComptesRendus, 

 No. 20, p. 1146. 



DEMODEX FOLLICULORUM. 



The following interesting notice is an abstract of a communication 

 read by Mr. Tulk before the Microscopical Society, December 20, 

 1843:— 



During the present month, Mr. Topping, the ingenious preparer of 

 microscopic objects, showed me some remarkable parasites found by 

 him in examining the contents of the pustules in a " mangy" dog, 

 and which I at once recognised as belonging to the genus Demodex 

 (Owen), which was first discovered, described and figured by Dr. 

 Simon of Berlin as inhabiting the sebaceous sacs and hair follicles 

 of the human skin . It would be difficult to determine whether the 

 present parasite existed in a similar situation, as the animal was such 

 a perfect mass of disease ; but as the hairs had fallen oflF in most 

 places, leaving the pustular and scabby surface of the skin exposed, 

 it is not improbable that it had been developed within their follicles. 

 These parasites were very abundant, sometimes as many as thirty to 

 forty in a single drop of pus, among the globules of which their pre- 

 sence is readily indicated by an appearance of pale semitransparent 

 lines, broad at one end and tapering to an obtuse point at the other. 



