Miscellaneous. "7 
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF PARROT, 
BY G. R. GRAY, FSQ., F.L.S. ETC. 
Psrrracus Rtprexrii. 
Uniform dark bronze colour, with the lesser and under wing-coverts 
bright yellow; the feathers of the thighs orange-yellow. 
Total length 9 inches 6 lines; bill, from gape, 10 lines; wings 
5 inches 6 lines; tail 3 inches 3 lines; tarsi 6 lines. 
The greater uniformity of colour at once distinguishes it from the 
allied species, Psittacus Meyeri and P. rufiventris of Dr. Riippell. 
The specimen from which this description is taken lived for up- 
wards of twelve months in the Society’s collection, and is believed to 
have been brought to this country from the river Nunez. I have 
named it in honour of my distinguished friend, whose labours have 
contributed so largely to our knowledge of African zoology.—From 
the Proceedings of the Zoological Society . 
ON DECAY IN FRUIT. 
Even the meanest subjects afford matter for admiration when 
attentively observed. Nothing at first sight could appear less in- 
teresting than the mode in which decay takes place im fruit; yet 
several distinct phenomena are exhibited, even in the same individual 
variety. In Apples, for instance, every housewife has observed that 
her fruit sometimes rapidly passes into a moist loathsome mass, while 
at other times it becomes a brown or black mummy. In the former 
case either some Penicillium or Mucor is almost invariably present ; 
in the latter there is sometimes a fungus of a totally different type, 
though frequently there is no indication, at least externally, of any 
parasite. 
An appearance, so very strange, presented itself a few days since 
in a basket of common Codlins, that a specimen was at once brought 
to us for examination. The whole of the outer surface had assumed 
a pale gray opake tinge, as if it had been scalded, the substance 
meanwhile feeling extremely hard and glassy, reminding one forcibly 
of the potatoes described by Martius affected with the dry rot (Trock- 
enfiule). Here and there beneath the cuticle beautiful radiating 
threads were observed, evidently indicating the presence of a fungus, 
but as they did not proceed to any further development, we could 
not ascertain of what species they were the mycelium. The gray 
tinge soon assumed, in portions of the surface, a deep brown tint, 
though the greater part sti remained pale. A section exhibited 
three different strata, the central one apparently sound, but rapidly 
becoming reddish brown, and collapsing in a very different way from 
what would have been the case with healthy tissue ; surrounding this 
was a thin layer of brown, evidently diseased, if not actually dead 
cells, and beyond this a superficial stratum of pale gray tissue. In 
none of these was there any trace of fungus threads except where 
the radiating flocci, above mentioned, were visible; the brown cells 
had lost their granular contents, and the walls of the gray cells were 
very irregular and collapsed, so as to present a confused appearance 
