253 



showing, as he imagines, from the mention of Sat. paphia, that I 

 had procured it at Mussooree. This is rather a bold jump to a con- 

 clusion ! 



" In reply to this part of the discussion, I incline to the side of Mr. 

 Hodgson, whose remarks regarding the mode adopted by collectors 

 of specimens in general, no matter whether birds or insects, are most 

 correct. The practice here at Mussooree is this : — a person wishing 

 to make a collection either takes a native collector into service, or 

 purchases the specimens singly from independent collectors who hawk 

 about insects for sale. These native gentry, whether hired or other- 

 wise, not being over-fond of hard work, invariably go down from 

 Mussooree into the Boon at the foot of the moimtains, and having 

 there filled their boxes, return to the hills to sell them. 



" The collector, in most cases disdaining to know the difference 

 between a moth and a butterfly, stows them all away into his boxes. 

 These collections are then sent off, or carried off, as illustrative of 

 the entomology of Mussooree and Landour, to which the collection 

 bears about as close an affinity as the fauna of Southern India does 

 to that of the Northern Provinces, — species common to both being 

 intermingled with others that exclusively belong to the one locality 

 or the other. Thus the greater portion of species in these collec- 

 tions is exclusively lowland. 



" Now among the lowlanders I am inclined to include the Tusseh 

 Moth ! I have collected at Simla and its neighbourhood, as well as 

 at Mussooree ; but during my long residence at the latter station, I 

 have only once in fifteen years seen the Tusseh Moth ; and that one 

 specimen was a female captured in the Dehra Boon near Hurdwur ; 

 besides that, I am not altogether certain that the species is identical 

 with the true Bengal Tusseh. In fact I doubt the occurrence of that 

 species in the hills, whether at Mussooree or at Kussowlee. 



" Thus far the statements of Mr. Hodgson are, I think, correct ; 

 but when he proceeds to assert that the Saul tree (Shorea robusta) 

 does not extend westward of Hurdwar, he falls into an error that 

 any traveller may correct, since there are splendid forests of Saul 

 throughout the Dehra Doou, and even away as far west as the Jumna, 

 if not farther. 



" The Tusseh Moths to which I alluded in my letter to Mr. West- 

 wood were all sent to me in cocoon from Bhagulpore by the late 

 Capt. Don. We have here at Mussooree, and also at Simla, a spe- 

 cies of Saturnia [^Anthercea'] feeding on the common Hill Oak (Quer- 

 cus incana), and bearing a resemblance to the Tusseh Moth, though 

 much smaller, and quite distinct : can this be Mr. Frith's Kussowlee 

 species ? 



" Mr. Frith mentions having ' inspected a very fine collection made 

 by a gentleman at Mussooree, in which are no less than eleven spe- 

 cies of true Bombycidce, viz. nine of the genus Saturnia, one ofActias, 

 and one of Saturnia \_Anthercea~] mylitta, or the true Tusseh Moth.' 

 Now if this collection belonged to a son of the late Col. Buckley *, 

 I can easily clear up the mystery of the Tusseh Moth coming from 

 * This collection was presented to the East India Company's Museum in 1849, 



