4» 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[MAKClt 



same thing happening, I felt certain they must manage to move with- 

 out showing themselves. The third time they pitched in an open 

 place and afterwards flew right away. The other three Bustards got 

 up in front of my shikari and also flew right away. 



The Indian Bustard is a very different shaped bird to the European 

 Bustard, O tarda, Linnaeus, which has shorter limbs, and a shorter 

 bill, and is altogether more turkey-like in form. In habits the two 

 species would appear to be very similar, except that the Indian Bus- 

 tard frequents somewhat more bushy country, A writer in the Sport- 

 ing Review expresses his belief that the Indian species is uever found 

 in any district that is not characterized by hills as well as plains, and 

 if that is so it would, perhaps, account for its being more common in 

 Rajputana and the Southern Mahratta country than in Gujerat. 



A writer in the Bengal Sporting Magazine states that he has 

 known the Bustard ridden down, and that after two or three flights it 

 gets so exhausted that it will allow itself to be captured, but Dr. Jer- 

 don expresses an opinion that it would tire ont the best horse and rider 

 before giving in. 



(to be continued). 



ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF DE1LEPHILA 



GALII. 



BY W. H. TUGWELL, F.E.S. 



My friend Mr. C. A. Briggs in the January number of the " Young 

 Naturalist" pp. 2-4 seems to think that he has found a weak spot in 

 my argument on the probable origin of the 1888 imagines of D. gain, 

 "by the date of their capture." To my mind the date of capture 

 affords no reliable proof as to what time a supposed immigrant like 

 D. galii may have appeared at any given place. Its noctural habit 

 and rapid flight, make its detection and capture extremely difficult, 

 and the chances of its not being observed at all, very great indeed. 

 The capture on a certain date of course proves its presence, by that 

 date, but in no way certifies that it may not have reached that locality 

 many days before it was absolutely captured. In many places the 

 larvae were found in some numbers, where no imagines had been seen 

 at all e. g. no moths were captured at Wallasey in 1888, still they 

 were there beyond dispute. " With the larvae it is very different, they 



