310 Captain T. Hutton’s Characters of 
time, contains a large number of the dark variety. One would 
be inclined to think that, considering the bad mode of rearing 
and the climate of Bengal, it would have degenerated into the 
white variety by this time, according to Captain Hutton’s theory.” 
The writer, however, shows, by the admission that “a large 
number of the dark variety’ occurs amongst the Boro-pooloo 
worms, that “ Captain Hutton’s theory” actually does hold good. 
Just as with the originally dark-coloured worms of B. Mori, so 
also the originally dark-coloured worms of B. textor “ have dege- 
rated into the white variey.” ‘The occurrence of these dark worms, 
as I have pointed out (ante, pp. 148 et seq.), is due to an effort on 
the part of nature to return to the original stock, from the sickly 
degenerated state into which the species have fallen. 
Again we are told that, “the selected dark-coloured worm of 
Mussooree did very well, but I could not detect any difference 
between the cocoons of these and those of the white Cashmere 
ones. I selected many of the black ones of the Cashmere, Bok- 
hara and ‘ Boro-pooloo,’ and kept them separate, but did not 
find that they produced better cocoons than the rest, and they all 
had one disadvantage, that is, on account of their colour, it was 
not easy to discover when they were ready to spin.” 
Be it observed, however, that in furnishing these dark-coloured 
worms, I did not guarantee the same results in Oudh as are ob- 
tainable in the European climate of Mussooree. I should not 
have been at all surprised to hear, considering the heat of Oudh 
and the inexperience of the conductor of the experiments, that 
every worm had returned to a state of sickly whiteness. As to 
the difficulty of discovering when they were ready to spin, this 
could only have occurred to an unpractised eye, since there is 
always a semi-transparent yellowish waxy hue about a mature 
worm that is quite unmistakeable to an experienced eye. 
According to Mr. C. Blechynden and Mr. Bashford, this species 
is the one that in Bengal is recognized as “ The Italian Stock ;” 
in which case it would appear to be identical with that which in 
France is termed “ The Milanese worm,” though if such be the 
case, how are we to account for its only undergoing three moults 
in France and Italy, while in India it invariably has four, like all 
the others? I incline very strongly to the belief that this alleged 
peculiarity is altogether fabulous. 
In Bengal, according to Mr. C. Blechynden and others, the 
worm is also sometimes dark coloured like those of B. Mori, thus 
showing clearly that it is not in its original healthy state; the 
