CHAPTER XII 



Birds of the Peak 



Lunching one day at Buxton, I hobnobbed with 

 a man whose classic features, fine physique and mag- 

 nificent 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 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 



125 



