NATURALIST IN INDIA. i 



sistence wherever their peculiar prey is plentiful. Add to 

 these the numerous pheasants and partridges, whose elegance 

 and beauty are unsurpassed by the allied birds of any other 

 country. The endless variety of plants, from the lichen on the 

 mountain-top to the deodar and Himalayan oaks in their 

 native forests, present one of the choicest fields to the 

 botanist. 



There can be no doubt that he who constantly keeps his mind 

 and body in healthy exercise is accumulating stores which, if 

 they do not produce intense happiness at the time, wiU be the 

 source of many pleasant after-reflections. If a journal registers 

 only the leading events of every-day life, and describes the 

 most prominent occupations of its author, it does a great deal ; 

 for if these occupations had not been recorded, where is the 

 intellect however clear — the memory however good — that 

 could have retained them with any degree of accuracy ? I 

 therefore present them as they were registered years ago 

 among the busy and changing scenes of an active life. If I 

 fail in benefiting others with the mformation obtained, I have 

 at least the consolation of knowing that my exertions, as re- 

 gards myself, have borne good fruits ; insamuch as they have 

 kept mind and body in pleasant and improving occupa- 

 tion ; or rather, as the author of the BamUer has exquisitely 

 expressed it, " He that enlarges his curiosity after the works 

 of nature, demonstrably multiplies the inlets to happiness ; and 

 therefore the younger part of my readers, to whom I dedicate 

 this vernal speculation, must excuse me for calling upon them 

 to make use at once of the spring of the year, and the spring 

 of life ; to acquire, while their minds may be yet impressed 

 with new images, a love of innocent pleasures and an ardour 

 for useful knowledge ; and to remember that a blighted 

 spring makes a barren year, and that the vernal flowers, how- 



