the Tusseh and Arrindy Silk-Worms of Bengal. 37 
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iris. Inferior, or second pair, are in point of colour like the 
first pair; the posterior margins arc also scolloped, and with a 
similar border, but convex; the eye in the centre of each is also 
the same. All are clothed with much soft hair, which becomes 
longer and longer towards the shoulder or points of insertion. 
The following interesting history of these most beautiful as well 
as most useful animals, 1 have had the good fortune to procure, 
by means of Mr. William Pope of Mahornetpore, mid with the 
writer (Mr. Atkinson's) permission, I transcribe in this place: 
To William Pope, Esq. 
DEAR SIR, 
" I duly received your letter of the evening of the 24th, toge- 
ther with the questions put to you by Doctor Roxburgh on the 
subject of the Tusseh silk-worm, and shall, with great pleasure, 
give the best answers in my power to the Doctor's inquiries, pre- 
viously remarking, that I have an opportunity of consulting two 
of the hill people, in whose neigbourhood a good deal of Tusseh 
silk is produced, and whom I have questioned on points imper- 
fectly known to myself. To reply to the Doctor's questions re- 
gularly. — 
1st. " The cocoons of the insect, which feeds on the Byer leaf, 
are called by the natives Bughy, producing a Tusseh silk. They 
are annual, and are said to remain in the cocoon nine months, 
and to be three months in the egg and worm state. 
2d. " This species cannot be domesticated. I am informed 
that the natives cannot even retain any of it for seed. The hill 
people say that they go into jungles, and under the Byer and 
Asseen trees they find the excrement of the insect; on which they 
examine 
