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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 noblo 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 
bo 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 bo 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 
