Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/14

 IV

INTRODUCTION.

in the forests of Kheri, but it is now many years since the last pair of horns fell to a European sportsman. Menyet live who remember the time when tigers swarmed along the banks of the Rdpti, and the names of more than one village Now they are very scarce record the terror they inspired. indeed, even along the immediate foot of the hills, and only Leopards occur in any numbers in the jungles of Khairigarh. are more common, and are found in the eanebrakes and thickets along the banks of all the streams to as far south as the Gogra. They do little damage, except by occasionally killing small calves and pigs, and their extreme wariness and migratory habits make it very difficult for the sportsman to mark them down. Nilgde are found in herds all over the province, and' it is a frequent complaint that their numbers and the depredation* they commit on the crops have much increased since the villagers have been disarmed. Hindus generally, for there are some exceptions, class them with cows, and hold them sacred from harm; but the Muhammadans rejoiced in a slaughter which protected their fields, gave them a wholesome change in their usual grain diet, and was an offensive assertion of their distinctive creed. Black buck are still common everywhere, and may be seen in great numbers on the lisar plains of the Ganges and the Gumti. Spotted deer are more shy, and they are probably disappearing with the tiger and the wild buffalo. During the cold weather the surface of the jhils is studded with innumerable flocks of teal and wild duck, while their reedy marges are the favourite haunt of snipe, but it is probable that this bird is less frequent here than Jungle fowl breed in the Tardi forin the rice-fields of Bengal. ests, and peacock abound in every district. It is perhaps hardly correct to class cattle among the wild animals of the province, as there is no evidence of their ever having been indigenous in that condition ; but the herds of villages depopulated during the native rule still wander among the jungles at the edge of the cultivated land and defy capture or domestication. The chief enemies to human life are wolves and snakes, of which large numbers are destroyed every year without apparently any sensible diminution in the mischief done by them. For domesticated animals, there is no lack of horses, cattle^ buffaloes, donkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, and fowls, and if there is no strain which even approaches average excellence, the dwarfed and ugly breeds of the country are at least hardy and prolific. Innumerable herds of diminutive cattle graze along the edge of the northern forest, and are driven into the highler plateaus for the hot months. They are cheap, and though insignificant in

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