CHAPTER XII 



BIRDS OF THE PEAK 



Seeking information at Buxton — Cuckoo and meadow pipit on 

 Axe Edge — A one-sided partnership — Song of the whinchat 

 — Voice of the curlew — The red grouse — Prologue to 

 Chapter XIII. 



LUNCHING one day at Buxton, I hobnobbed 

 with a man whose classic features, fine physique 

 and magnificent beard filled me with a great 

 admiration. He was the vicar of a neighbouring 

 parish, a man of the open air, a cultivated mind, and 

 large sympathies — the very person I wanted to meet, 

 for doubtless he would know the birds and be able 

 to tell me all I wanted to learn. By-and-by the 

 subject was introduced, and he replied that he did 

 not know very much about birds, but he had noticed 

 a particularly big crow in his parish — big and black 

 — and he would like to know what it was. There 

 were always some of them about. Perhaps it was a 

 carrion crow or a rook, he couldn't say for certain; 

 but it was exceptionally big — and very black. 



One meets with many disappointments when asking 

 for information about the bird life of any locality; 

 one is apt to forget that such knowledge is not com- 

 mon, that it is easier to find a poet or a philosopher 

 in any village than a naturalist. Nevertheless I was 



singularly fortunate at Buxton in meeting with that 



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