500 THE BIRDS OF THE LUCKNOW CIVIL DIVISION, 



to these the majority will probably annually return until 

 drought or a scarcity of water sends them back to their old 

 haunts. 



Apart, however, from the effects produced by the deficient 

 rainfall of recent years, there can, I think, be no doubt that 

 the avifauna of the Division has undergone many changes 

 within the last fifty years, and that, as time rolls on, it will 

 undergo many more. 



With the gradual destruction of all forest tracts certain 

 species, it may be safely asserted, disappeared, retiring, like the 

 tiger and leopard and many other animals, to the jungles and 

 forests of the Terai. We may, therefore, assume that in future 

 the exigencies of an increasing population will materially 

 influence the distribution of species. That influence will, most 

 likely, be exercised through the medium of the flora, either by 

 the destruction of its present specialities, or by the gradual 

 introduction of new plants and trees. The destruction of the 

 banian or other Fici, for example, would probably altogether 

 banish the Green Pigeons and Barbets, and result in diminishing 

 the numbers of other strictly frugivorous birds. 



Had we, for instance, any means of ascertaining the changes 

 which the universal propagation of the mangoe has alone 

 gradually effected, the result would probably surprise us. 

 Unfortunately we have no record — certainly no reliable one — 

 of the avifauna as it existed fifty years ago, and it is useless 

 to speculate now on the changes it has undergone. But an 

 is old shikaree" recently told me that as a boy, he used to catch 

 the beautiful Emerald Ground Dove, (Ghalcophaps inclka) about 

 Lucknow, a region that it never visits now, and that many 

 other birds have disappeared in his time, with, I suppose, the 

 forests. 



From the same cause — forest destruction — the Mammalian 

 fauna of the Division, to which I must now briefly refer, is neces- 

 sarily restricted to harmless animals, so far as man is concerned ; 

 but it is perhaps more to their depredations, than to biped foes, 

 that many resident game and other birds are rapidly becoming 

 exceedingly scarce. Indeed in a country where the destructive 

 efforts of animals (even the common squirrel destroys nests to 

 get material for its own) are so ably seconded by innumerable 

 birds of prey, the wonder is that some species have not long 

 ago become extinct. Sportsmen and others, therefore, who of 

 late years have been clamouring for the introduction of Game 

 Laws, would do well to remember, first, that they have no game 

 to preserve ; and, secondly, that until they manage to rid the 

 country of vermin, the preservation of game practically rests 

 with themselves. Instead of agitating for impracticable Game 

 Laws, or in other words, a law to oppress the actual owners of 



