THE BIRDS OF THE LUCKNOW CIVIL DIVISION. 



games ; but they afford luxuriant retreats to the villagers and 

 their cattle during the hot months of the year. They also 

 afford evidence of what may be accomplished by the introduc- 

 tion and acclimation of a useful fruit or fodder-producing flora, 

 for the mangoe {Mangifera indica), notwithstanding its specific 

 name, is not, I believe, found in a wild state in India, certainly 

 not in Oudh. 



Another and special feature of the Division is its usar plains* 

 "Whether these arid wastes, more or less covered during the cold 

 and dry season with a saline efflorescence, can ever be brought 

 under the plough, is a question that agricultural chemists might 

 spend some of their superabundant energies in solving. Their 

 reclamation would certainly be a blessing to the people whether 

 it took the form of converting them into culturable or timber 

 producing tracts. The Arabian date palm would probably 

 grow on them, and would be an invaluable tree in famine times* 

 as its fruit would not then be, as it usually is, destroyed, when 

 ripening, by excessive rain. It would require some little atten- 

 tion at first, until its long, straight root got deep into the soil : 

 after that, no tree is more capable of taking care of itself. 



These saline plains extend far and wide, particularly in the 

 Lucknow and Unao districts, aud are said to encroach insidi- 

 ously on the cultivated lands in their vicinity. During the rains 

 they are covered with a stunted growth of grass upon which 

 the village cattle are turned out to feed, and upon them, at all 

 seasons, antelope (Antelope bezoartica) delight to roam. 



The Division I have said is practically level, but towards the 

 Gogra on the north, aud the Ganges on the south, there is a 

 o-entle, but perceptible, slope before the bed of either river is 

 reached. These "silent highways" have much in common. 

 Both are more or less fringed with tamarisk and grass jungles, 

 resorted to by numerous nilgai (Protax pictus) and pig ( Sus 

 indicus) ; the Gangetic porpoise (P. gangetica) is common to 

 both; tortoises and crocodiles (C. paluslris aud G. gangeticus) 

 both abound in either, and excepting the black partridge, 

 (F. vulgaris), which is not that I know of found within our 

 limits in the vicinity of the Gogra, the avifauna of the one is* 

 common to both rivers. 



Intermediately, that is between the Ganges and the Gogra, 

 the Goomti, about equidistant from both, is the only other river 

 of importance. It passes through the Division in a south- 

 easterly directiou, and is navigable to country craft of moderate 

 burden, its waters for the most part being confined to a well 

 defined channel. The Sail is next in importance and is, in fact, 

 the only other that has any pretensions to be called a river. 



The minor streams are the Kalyani, Jamuriha, Reth, Bumria, 

 Bahonia and Nurbia (Barabanki district) ; the Baita, Loni, the 



