n8 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



and chief delight — perhaps affords me a keener 

 pleasure than can be experienced by the man of 

 unlimited opportunities. My humbler triumph is 

 like that of the lover of literature of small means, 

 who from time to time, by some lucky chance, be- 

 comes the possessor of some long-desired book. For 

 how much greater is his joy in fingering and in reading 

 it than the wealthy owner of a great library can 

 know ? It is true the poor book-lover dreams of better 

 things: more leisure to hunt, more money to buy — 

 a legacy perhaps from some kindly being he knows 

 not of, which will enable him to grasp greater prizes 

 than have ever come in his way. So with me: year 

 by year I dream of longer journeys into remoter and 

 wilder places in search of other charming species 

 not yet seen in their native haunts. And that was 

 my dream last winter — it always is my dream — 

 which, when summer came round, found its usual 

 ending. The longer journey had to be postponed to 

 another year and a shorter one taken; so it came 

 about that I got no further than the Peak district, 

 just to spend a few weeks during the breeding season 

 with half a dozen birds, all familiar enough to most 

 ornithologists, but which are not found, at all events 

 not all together, nearer to London than the Derby- 

 shire hills. 



Axe Edge, where I elected to stay, is not the 

 highest hill in that part, being about eighteen hundred 

 feet above the sea, whereas Kinder Scout rises to 

 quite two thousand; but I found it high enough for 

 one who modestly prefers walking and cycling on the 



