ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 187 



tussore-silk moth, or Atlas, and others, were imported care- 

 fully ; and trestle tables were provided all round the verandah 

 for the accommodation of trays for the future progeny, so 

 many at last being needed that narrow alleys between them 

 was all the space that could be spared for the attendants, 

 who had to move sideways. The new bungalow for the 

 Forest Officer was built by then, and we were occupying it, 

 or this experiment could not have been carried out, the old 

 ramshackle, rat-snaky building before mentioned having 

 been condemned on F.'s representing that it was only fit 

 for the creatures it harboured. He had been allowed to send 

 in his own plans, so the result was a very commodious 

 bungalow (to our idea), with a garden adjoining. This was 

 on the top of the hill. Below was the Experimental Garden 

 already described. 



The new building contained four large rooms opening 

 into each other, passages being rightly regarded as waste 

 of space. There were dressing and bathrooms attached, 

 and very wide verandahs all round the four sides, glazed 

 in with a double-sliding arrangement, as affording better 

 protection against, as well as offering less resistance to, the 

 force of the monsoon. 



Nothing more beautiful can be imagined than those moths 

 when they emerged from their chrysalis tombs and unfolded 

 their crumpled and still damp wings. One, the Atlas moth, 

 measured twelve inches across from tip to tip ; some speci- 

 mens of this sort even more. They were of a soft fawn 

 colour, and covered with down so long that it was almost 

 feathery. In the four wings were what resembled little 

 windows of a talc-like substance — as large as a threepenny 

 bit in the larger wings — and so transparent that one could 

 see clearly through them ! The hinder wings were extended 

 into long delicate stems, something after the fashion of a 

 peacock's tail plumage, ending in a claret-coloured 'eye.' 

 Another moth had a snow-white body, thickly feathered, 



