What does the top of the bird-catcher's head look like?

Question

In The New Yorker issue of 13 February 2013, Brad Leithauser discussed some of Robert Graves's love poems, including the quatrain "Love Without Hope". (I think the poem is still copyrighted, even though it has been reproduced on many websites.)

The poem's second verse says the bird-catcher,

Swept off his tall hat to the Squire’s own daughter,

Leithauser comments (my emphasis),

Normally, the sweeping off of a tall hat would suggest elegance, but not here. (We know what the top of his head must look like.)

Really? Why is this worth mentioning? (If it's just an ordinary bunch of hair, why even mention it?) What would the top of the bird-catcher's head look like?

Answer 1

There are live larks in the hat.

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Explanatory edit requested by Gallifreyan:

If someone has been imprisoning live birds in their hat, we can assume that their hair will be at least messy and perhaps covered in feathers and bird droppings. So, as Leithauser points out, Graves has transformed the gallant gesture of a gentleman into something that's at the same time more scruffy and more heartfelt.