Crossword Genius

Rustic Henry leaves bird (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

peasant

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'rustic' is the definition.
(I know that peasant is a type of rustic)

'henry leaves bird' is the wordplay.
'henry leaves' becomes 'peas' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'bird' becomes 'ant bird' (ant bird is a kind of bird).
'peas'+'ant'='PEASANT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for peasant that I've seen before include "Poor rustic" , "Rural person of low class" , "Yokel" , "Rustic fellow" , "Rural labourer" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.
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