THE BIRDS OF THE LUCKNOW CIVIL DIVISION. 497 



Nagwa and Bank nadis (Lucknow district) ; and the Kalyani, 

 Tinai and Loni (Unao district). The insignificance of these 

 streams for purposes of irrigation may be estimated by the fact 

 that in the drought of 1877-78 none of them contained water 

 — the fate of many of them ever since. During the rains, how- 

 ever, some of them have considerable flood discharges and are 

 formidable enough in appearance. The Kalyani, for instance, in 

 the rains of 1872 was 269 feet broad, where it is crossed by the 

 railway in the Barabanki district, and 33 feet deep, with a 

 velocity of 574 miles per hour and a discharge of 51,540 cubic 

 feet per second. The mean velocity of the others ranged from 

 three to eight miles per hour, with discharges of from 2,000 to 

 8,000 cubic feet per second ; but during the dry weather they are 

 mere drains, characterized by tortuous and rugged banks, 

 broken into innumerable fissures and ravines. Hitherto the 

 majority of them have been classed as perennial streams, but 

 their title to even that distinction has been disposed of by the 

 deficient rainfall of recent years. 



Unfortunately the cost of irrigating* with the waters of any 

 but the most insignificant of these rivers is, or is generally sup- 

 posed to be, prohibitory. The water in them is usually much 

 below the level of the surrounding fields, necessitating expen- 

 sive lifts, and partly from prejudice (as in the case of the 

 Ganges) and other causes, they practically count for nothing in 

 the agricultural economy of the Division. 



It is to their wells and to the numerous jhils and marshes that 

 the cultivator looks for a supply of water, and upon which, in 

 years of average rainfall, he can always depend. It is therefore 

 fortunate for him, and equally so for sportsmen, that jhils are 

 abundant, some of them being fine expanses of water. They 

 are particularly numerous about Mohunlalgunj, Sehsindi, Bijnor 

 and Rahimabad in the Lucknow district ; about Ajgaen in the 

 Unao district ; and in the tahsils of Daryabad, Ram Sanehi Ghat 

 and Nawabgunj in the Barabanki district. As is usual through- 

 out Upper India these localities are also those where usar waste 

 and stunted scrub jungle most abound ; but nowhere has one to 

 go far before meetiug with either a jhii or marsh. In ordinary 

 seasons the larger ones contain water throughout the year, but 

 in 1877 their supplies failed owing to the scanty rainfall of 

 that and the previous year, and the consequent heavy demands 

 made upon them for irrigation. The rainfall of 1878 was barely 

 equal to the task of re-filling them, and by the eud of the year 

 most were again dry. 



Remarkable as it may seem, these jhils have ever since been 

 metamorphosed in character. Formerly many of them were 

 fine expanses of water ; some of them used to be covered with 

 the lotus aud other aquatic plants ; others again being entirely 



