Miscellaneous. 77 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF PARROT. 

 BY G. K. GRAY, FSQ., F.L.S. ETC. 



PSITTACUS RUPPELLII. 



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. Iliippell. 



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 in fruit ; yet 

 several distinct phsenomena 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 Martins affected with the dry rot (Trock- 

 enfiiule). 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 still 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 



