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Peninsular and Oriental Company have reduced the voyage to one 

 month between Calcutta and Melbourne ; and the completion of the 

 great Indian system of railways, now rapidly approaching, has 

 practically made the hitherto almost unknown interior and the hilly 

 country as accessible to us as the seaports. The enterprise and 

 energy of our fellow-countrymen have been developing at a mar- 

 vellous rate, all the splendid and various natural resources of this 

 magnificent country ; and it may be said, indeed, that it is only in 

 these last few years that we have really entered into possession of 

 the noble heritage left to us by the valour and wisdom of our early 

 Indian conquerors and statesmen. Possessed of almost every 

 variety of climate and soil within her wide bounds, the peculiar 

 value of India to this country lies in the fact that a large proportion 

 of her territory bears a close analogy in soil and climate to Australia. 

 The animals which are natural to this region may, therefore, fairly 

 be presumed to be adapted to become denizens also of our continent. 

 For the purposes of our present inquiry, India may be roughly 

 divided into three principal climatic regions — the purely tropical 

 districts of the south and the sea-coasts — the dry, temperate plains 

 of the north and of the central table-land, and the region of snow 

 and ice in the great mountain ranges which form the northern and 

 eastern boundary of our empire. Within bounds so wide, India 

 contains natural productions the most diverse and opposite — animals 

 of the true tropical character, with others of pure alpine habit — the 

 tiger and the elephant, as well as the chamois and the snow-grouse. 

 Nay, sometimes, even under the same parallel, we shall find the 

 most singular assemblage of varied natural forms — oaks, beeches, 

 pines, and rhododendrons, on the hill tops ; the bamboo, the mango, 

 and the banana, in the valleys — the degrees of elevation producing 

 the same climatic effects as degrees of latitude in other countries. 

 But it will be impossible, within the limits prescribed to me, that I 

 should be able to give you even a sketch of the vast natural treasures 

 of our Indian empire. I have to do, this evening, only with Indian 

 birds, and among Indian birds, only with those of the gallinaceous 

 order. Of all birds, these may claim to stand in the very first rank, 

 both from their beauty of form and plumage, and their usefulness to 

 man. They are also by far the most interesting to the acclimatiser, 

 from the readiness with which they adapt themselves to changes of 

 climate, and their capacity for domestication. Indeed, if the science 

 of acclimatisation required any arguments in its defence, they would 

 be sufficiently furnished in the examples of what man has done, at 

 various times, with the birds of the gallinaceous order. The turkey 

 and the domestic fowl are among the most precious trophies of 

 acclimatisation. The pheasant, the capercailzie, and the ptarmigan, 

 in the British -Islands, are instances of the success with which the 

 game-birds of one country may be trained to inhabit another. Nay, 

 I need not go out of Victoria to find an illustration of the ease with 

 which game-birds may be acclimatised. I am informed that on one 



