THROUGH WILD EUROPE i 49 



an easy conclusion to my search. I ought to have 

 known better. In whatever part of the world I 

 have been in the peasants are almost invariably 

 utterly ignorant of birds and quite unable to tell 

 one from the other even in their own language. 

 Neither the Spanish herdsmen nor the Albanian 

 peasants, who see Eagles and Vultures every day of 

 their lives, can tell the difference between them ; 

 they don't, in fact, know there is any difference. I 

 had brought with me a series of coloured tracings of 

 birds, with the local names in various European 

 languages to help me in making inquiries, but found 

 them utterly useless. An Inspector of Fisheries in 

 Roumania, for instance, a man sufficiently educated 

 at all events to keep accounts and write reports, on 

 being shown a Little Egret said it was Lebeda. 

 Now I knew Lebeda in the Dobrudscha means Swan ! 

 He only saw the bird was white, but could not see 

 that the shape of an Egret is as unlike as it could 

 possibly be to that of a Swan. It is sufficiently 

 exasperating to make a long day's journey only to 

 find something not worth going out of the way for ; 

 and yet you have to chance it. Your information 

 may be right, or it may be wrong, it probably is 

 wrong, but all the same you must go and see for 

 yourself; and you have to pay just as much for 

 false information as if it had led to a good result. 

 Sure enough, after walking, or rather wading, about 



