8968 Insects. 
and, where the breed is intermixed, gradually assume the native character or die out. 
This I believe to be the case with the mixed breed of the human race; for instance, 
the “half-castes” of India are a tolerably numerous class, but I much doubt whether 
their descendants of the third or fourth generation are proportionately so, and think it 
not unreasonable to suppose that they will eventually prove sterile, or die out; for, 
considering the long period that has elapsed since India was first colonized by 
Europeans, and the paucity of white women, it might have been expected that a 
far greater number of a mixed breed would have been found, had there not been a 
counteracting influence at work. The mixed remnant of the Portuguese race are so 
degenerated that they are now barely distinguishable from the lower-caste natives, 
and will probably, ere. many generations, have become extinct, or undistinguishable ; 
for where the mother is a woman of colour, the offspring, I am inclined to believe, 
generally bear a greater resemblance to her than to their white or semi-white progenitor. 
Henry Hadfield ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, February 6, 1864. 
[Captain Hadfield introduces a very interesting and important subject when he 
alludes to the varieties of man, but one which I fear cannot be fully discussed in the 
‘Zoologist;’ individually I have not the slightest objection to it, but I fear, were all 
the facts connected with the question fully discussed, some readers of the ‘ Zovlogist’ 
might consider them rather out of place: under these circumstances I suggest that 
that particolar branch of the subject may be dropped, while I would earnestly invite 
the publication of all the facts relative to quadrupeds, birds, or more especially insects, 
and the tendency of species to depart from or return to their normal character— 
Edward Newman.] 
Scarcity of Sphinx Ligustri in the Neighbourhood of Newark.—A correspondent 
(Zool. 8906) records the unusual abundance, in the neighbourhood of London, during 
the summer of 1863, of the larve of Sphinx Ligustri. I was surprised at this 
announcement, as the very opposite is the case here. It is known that this portion of 
the Valley of the Trent formerly produced S. Ligustri very freely. One seldom walked 
alongside a privet-hedge, or cast his eye over the privet and lilac plantations in the 
nursery-grounds or cottage-gardens, without observing the velvety-green larva resting 
on a towering twig, and any collector known to “ buy grubs” was pretty safe to have 
some half-hundred brought in during the season. With us this insect now seems a 
thing of the past. Since the wet summer and intensely severe wiuter of 1860 I have 
not seen, nor been able to procure, a single larva, and I am assured, both by 
collectors and also by intelligent nurserymen (who here know the insect in all its 
stages) that they have not seen either larva, pupa or imago since 1860 ; this is another 
instance of how particularly severely the belt of the Trent suffered at that time. 
I cannot agree with your correspondent as to the habit of the young larva of this 
insect, namely, that it descends to the surface of the ground for the purpose of con- 
cealment during the day. Long observation brings me to the conclusion that at no 
stage of its growth does it descend, so long as food is abundant, and that its first 
extended “ constitutional” is when instinct prompts it to seek a suitable place for 
transformation. I have collected the larve at all ages, from the thickness of a straw 
upwards: they are quite readily found while young on the privet plants in nursery- 
grounds, but on larger bushes and in hedge-rows they are proportionally difficult to 
discover. I am satisfied that they do not in any stage attempt concealment, but 
depend entirely for protection on colour and attitude —George Guscoyne ; Newark-on- 
Trent, February, 1864. 
