Birds of Luchnow. 475 
A characteristic of Oudh is its mango-groves (Mangifera 
indica), whicli are so numerous that they give an appearance 
of the horizon being bounded by a continuous forest. 
These groves, being in most cases free from brushwood and 
undergrowth^ harbour no game^ but afford cool retreats to 
man and beast in hot weather. 
Another special feature of the Division is the presence of 
usar plains. These lands, being full of efflorescent salts, 
rendering them incapable of cultivation, are arid wastes, pro- 
ducing scanty herbage, on which the black-buck (Antelope 
cervicapra) is always to be found. Mr. Reid, in discussing 
the possibility of utilizing these tracts, says : — "The Arabian 
date-palni 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 attention at first, until its long 
straight root got deep into the soil : after that no tree is 
more capable of taking care of itself."*^ 
It is said that these saline plains encroach on the adjoining 
arable land_, but the increase of the area under cultivation 
causes me to be sceptical as to the truth of this statement. 
The Division is practically a dead level, but towards the 
Gogra in the north, and the Ganges in the south, there is 
a gentle, but perceptible, slope. 
^' These silent highways have much in common. They are 
more or less fringed with tamarisk [jhao^ and grass jungles, 
resorted to by numerous nilgai [Boselaphus tragocamelus] 
and pigs \_Sus indicus] ; the Gangetic porpoise [Platanista 
gungeticd] is found in both ; tortoises and crocodiles \_Cro- 
codiius palustris and Gavialis gangelicus] abound, and, 
excepting the Black Partridge [Francolinus vulgaris^, which 
does not, so far as I know, occur within our limits in the 
vicinity of the Gogra, the avifauna of the one river is common 
to both." 
I fancy that Gogra is here a misprint for Ganges, as I 
found the Black Partridge occurring in the ^^manjar^^ or 
*^ khadir^^ at Fyzabad, but I do not know of its being found 
on the Ganges. 
Besides these two, the only river of any importance is 
