A Partridge...

.. not in a Pear Tree but in a display case. The partridge came to live with us some years ago having belonged to my wife's grandfather (an eminent clergyman). It has a little label in the top left hand corner which reads "Killed by flying through a carriage window of an Express Train between York & Scarborough on Nov. 15th 1883"

This raises all sorts of questions. For example, was the carriage window closed or open? Open seems unlikely for north Yorkshire in mid November, so did the bird crash through the glass or into the glass? If the latter then presumably it fell on to the line or perhaps a station platform from where it was retrieved. But who, travelling on an 'Express' train stops to collect a dead partridge? A taxidermist perhaps who might leap up thinking 'stuff that'? If not then somebody who was prepared to retain a dead partridge - not so bad in November - until such time as they could find the services of a taxidermist. The label suggests that the train was travelling from York to Scarborough, so perhaps this was the destination of the traveller/taxidermist, or did they return to York with the dead partridge seeking a taxidermist/stuffing it themselves? For some reason I imagine taxidermy being more common in York than Scarborough but perhaps not in 1883. I wonder also what class the carriage was - presumably first class - I can't imagine that taxidermy is cheap or was available to those who travelled in second or third class. But then again perhaps class is irrelevant and it was a station master who picked up the bird and had it stuffed for display in his ticket office (I realise of course that class - in the wider sense - is not irrelevant in those circumstances)? The grey partridge is now a red list species - how much has collision with railway carriage windows contributed to its demise?

Enough displacement activity, I'd better get back to work....