LEPIDOPTERAi 393 



a sceptic as to the alleged fact of the silkworms tenanting these 

 mountains at elevations like that of Darjeeling." 



In answer to the above remarks by Messrs. Hodgson and Frith, 

 we quote the following by Capt. Thomas Hutton : — " The Tusseh 

 moth (Saturnia Paphid), which Mr. Frith says he has procured from 

 Mussooree and Kussowlee, a statement doubted by Mr. Hodgson, 

 who confines the insect to the plains and base of the hills, pointing 

 out that Collectors are in the habit of jumbling speeies from various 

 localities into the same box, and calling them a collection of Himalayan 

 species. 



" Mr. Frith afterwards appeals to my letter to Mr. "Westwood, as 

 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 conclusion I 

 In reply to this part of the diseussion, I incline to the side of 

 Mr. Hodgson, whose remarks regarding the mode adopted by Col- 

 lectors of specimens in general, no matter whether of 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 ser- 

 vice, or purchases the specimens singly from independent Collectors 

 who hawk about insects for sale. These native gentry, whether hired 

 or otherwise, not being over fond of hard work, invariably go down 

 from Mussooree into theDoon, at the foot of the mountains, 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 collections 

 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 Doon, near Hurdwar ; 

 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 



