LEPIDOPTEiU OF KARACHI AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 269 



height, their legs and neck thick, head large, and coat long 

 and shaggy, possess wonderful powers of endurauce, remaining 

 out in the open in extreme cold, and contenting themselves with 

 the scanty herbage, or, if there be none, with such coarse stuff 

 as camels feed on. In winter the snow serves them for water. 

 They roam almost at liberty over the pasture lands of Northern 

 Kalka and the country of the Chakhars. The larger herds are 

 usually broken up iuto smaller troops of 10 to 30 mares, led by 

 a stallion, who guards them with the greatest jealousy and never 

 lets them out of his sight. The leaders of them have pitched 

 battles with one another in the spring. Darwin observed a tribe 

 of Indians which was gradually changing from hunters on foot 

 to hunters on horseback, a neighbouring tribe lending- them old 

 and inferior horses to prevent their being absolutely starved 

 through want of success in the chase. 



The wild and semi-wild horses constitute together a grand reserve 

 of remounts for the world's requirements. They are absolutely 

 necessary for travelling in many parts ; they even constitute a source 

 of food supply to mankind; they give scope for reckless energy of 

 certain classes of mankind which might otherwise find a less legiti* 

 mate outlet ; in some countries, as in primitive ages, skin, hair, 

 hoofs, milk, and bones of horses are found useful. There is doubt- 

 less much waste in capture and breaking-iu, yet the supplies SGem 

 almost inexhaustible, thanks to rapid propagation and wide range 

 over suitable country. Even viewed as a feral animal, there are few 

 quadrupeds more useful to man than Equus caballus ; as a domes- 

 ticable being he is one of the grandest of presents of Nature to 

 mankind. 



J. H. S. 

 Bombay Veterinary College. 



ON THE LEP1DQPTERA OP KARACHI AND ITS 

 NEIGHBOURHOOD. (Part I.) 



By Col. C. Swinhoe, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



There appears to be no record of any collection of Lepidoptera 

 ever having been made in Karachi or in Southern Sind, beyond a 

 short paper of my own, which appeared in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London for 1884, p. 503. 



I collected at and about Karachi, from December 1878 up to 

 August 1880, employing (as I always do) the services of a trained 



