8 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
preservation is not so rigorous here as in many parts 
of the county, where the prevailing religion may almost 
be said to be the worship of a burnished idol in the 
shape of a cock Pheasant, and no one travelling through 
the Forest can fail to be struck by the abundance of 
the Jay and Magpie. In the oak-woods during summer 
the Tree Pipit and Wood Wren outnumber any other 
species, and after dark the ‘churring’ of the Nightjar 
may be heard in every direction. 
THE EASTERN HILLS. 
That part of Cheshire which lies between the Tame 
and Etherow, and the district east of a line drawn from 
Marple to Macclesfield and thence to Harecastle on 
the Staffordshire border, constitute a well-marked 
area, an outlying portion of the Peak country, entirely 
different in physical features from the Cheshire Plain. 
The millstone grit and other primary rocks of which 
this district is composed are weathered into picturesque 
‘edges, and attain a considerable altitude in many 
places. Shining Tor, on the Derbyshire border near 
Buxton, is 1833 feet, and the conical peak of Shuttlings 
Low in the same neighbourhood is 1658 feet high. 
From Bosley Cloud, Congleton Edge runs south-west to 
Mow Cop, the southern outpost of the Hill Country. 
The moorland ridge stretching from Staleybridge to 
Woodhead has its greatest elevation near the source 
of Heyden Brook at Black Hill (1908 feet), the highest 
point in Cheshire. 
Apart from the manufacturing towns of Hyde (pop. 
30,000), Dukinfield (pop. 29,000), and Staleybridge (pop. 
27,000) in the Tame Valley, the East Cheshire Highlands 
