THE BIRDS OF THE LUCKNOW CIVIL DIVISION. 499 



The railway, too, has also had a baneful effect in diminish- 

 ing the number of birds, by bringing jhils within the reach 

 of sportsmen that were formerly rarely, if ever, disturbed by 

 the sound of a gun. Native fowlers in the ante-railway days 

 used to net thousands, many of them rare ducks — on jhils 

 where they find it profitless to catch them now, birds 

 being scarce on account of the " potting" continually going 

 on. 



The result is interesting and instructive as showing how the 

 avifauna of particular tracts may be affected, if not entirely 

 changed, in the course of a few years. Indeed, with every 

 altered circumstance, with every change in the flora and 

 physical features of any region, whether due to drought or 

 not, we may look for corresponding changes in the avifauna. 



For instance, during the cold weather of 1877-78 when, as 

 we have seen, all the marshes and minor streams and almost 

 all the jhils were dry, Snipe, Geese, Ducks, Coots, Cormorants, 

 Flamingoes, Pelicans, Spoonbills, Ibises, Gulls, Herons, Cranes, 

 the Crested Grebe, the Smew and all the waders and shore-birds 

 were absent, or were only to be found (many of them not at 

 all) on the larger rivers. The absence, too, of the Peregrine 

 Falcon (F. peregrinus) was conspicuous. 



Again, in the cold weather of 1878-79, when the jhils and 

 marshes were only partially filled, and were almost all again 

 empty before the hot seasen of 1879 commenced, I noticed 

 that, while the commoner kinds of ducks and shore-birds were 

 poorly represented, the Widgeon was more numerous than I had 

 ever known it to be in previous years. The Crested Grebe was 

 remarkably scarce, while Flamingoes, Pelicans, Cranes, (the 

 Sarus excepted) and Gulls were still absent. 



In the cold season of 1879-80, after a season of average 

 rainfall, and when the jhils were fuller than they had been for 

 years, wild fowl and water-birds were still poorly represented. 

 The Barred-headed Goose was remarkably scarce considering 

 its abundance in former years, while the Grey Lag was perhaps 

 more abundant than ever. But the Crested Grebe, Flamingoes, 

 Pelicans, Cranes and Gulls, so plentiful in bygone days, were 

 still either absent or remarkably rare. The cultivation of the 

 singhara plant had doubtless something to do with the scarcity, 

 but the great majority of the birds probably remained further 

 north where water was abundant. 



Considering, however, the habit that many migratory birds 

 have of visiting the same spot annually, it occurs to me that 

 disappointment in previous years may have had something to 

 do with the marked falling-off in their numbers. Finding 

 little or no water in the Division for three successive years, 

 they must have sought for and found it in other localities, and 



