The Melamed and the Impure Birds

It is told that one day, in the cheder in Mad, the melamed asked the children in the cheder to recite all the names of the impure birds mentioned in Parashas Shemini. While the other children struggled with the task, the melamed overheard the young Kol Arye murmuring quietly to himself.

“What is hard about that?” the boy was saying. “Let us see who can recite by heart the whole sugya of the nesher in Chullin, pages 61 to 63, which discusses all the laws of impure birds, with the Gemara, Rashi and Tosfos.” From that day the melamed understood that the young Kol Arye had already left his classmates far behind.