394 CATALOGUE OF 



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

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

 traveller may correct ; since there are splendid forests of Saul through- 

 out the Dehra Doon, 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 

 Captain Don. "We have here at Mussooree, and also at Simla, a species 

 of Saturnia feeding on the common Hill Oak (Quercus incanct), 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 species 

 of true BombycidcB, viz. nine of the genus Saturnia, one of Actias, 

 and one of Saturnia 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 Mussooree, 

 since it was one of my Bhagulpore specimens given in exchange for 

 something else : and I may as well point out that the collection to 

 which I allude contained species from various parts of India, I myself 

 having contributed insects from Mirzapore, Neemuch, and even from 

 Afghanistan, in exchanges ; while there were also a few from China ! 

 Besides which, Mr. Buckley's object being to make a collection 

 without noting or caring for locality, the greater number of his spe- 

 cimens came, as usual, from the Dehra Doon. This (if I am right 

 in my conjecture about the collection alluded to by Mr. Frith) may 

 serve to show with what degree of suspicion any collection, not made 

 hy a naturalist, should be regarded by scientific men both at home 

 and abroad ; since, by taking it for granted that the collection con- 

 tained only the species proper to the locality in which it is stated to 

 have been made, the closet naturalist may be led to form the most 

 erroneous conclusion in regard to the distribution of species. Nor is 

 this remark to be confined to insects only, since it will equally apply 

 to ornithological collections ; so that any modern Adam, who may 

 undertake to form a system, founded rather upon the length and 

 breadth of an animal's tail, than upon the habits and manners of the 

 species in their native haunts, and who thunders forth his dogmas 

 from his artificial paradise of musty skins, may, and doubtless often 

 has, put forth a host of errors for the acceptance of other naturals as 

 little conversant with living species as himself. 



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



