BIRDS OF THE I'LAK 125 



There were always some of them ahout. 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 Itjcality; one 

 is apt to forget that such knowledge is not common, 

 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 same rarity 

 in the person of a tradesman of the town, a Mr. Micah 

 Salt, who had studied the birds of the district all his 

 life. But not in books; he did not read about birds, 

 he observed them for his own pleasure and it was a 

 pleasure to him to talk about them, but it went no 

 further. He did not even make a note; bird-watching 

 was his play — a better outdoor game than golf, as it 

 really does get you a little forrarder, and does not make 

 you swear and tell lies and degenerate from a pleasant 

 companionable being to an intolerable bore. 



It was through his advice that I w^nt to stay on Axe 

 Edge, where I would find all the birds I wanted to 

 watch, and where It seemed to me on first going on to 

 the moor that about five-sixths of the bird life consisted 

 of two species — cuckoo and meadow pipit. At the low- 

 roofed stone cabin where I lodged a few wind-torn 

 beeches had succeeded in growing, and these were a great 

 attraction to the moorland cuckoos and their morning 

 meeting-place. From half -past three they would call 

 so loudly and persistently and so many together from 

 trees and roof as to banish sleep from that hour. And 



