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    Some Notes on English Animal Lore - Birds, Animals, Insects and Reptiles (Folklore History Series)
    Some Notes on English Animal Lore - Birds, Animals, Insects and Reptiles (Folklore History Series)
    Some Notes on English Animal Lore - Birds, Animals, Insects and Reptiles (Folklore History Series)
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Some Notes on English Animal Lore - Birds, Animals, Insects and Reptiles (Folklore History Series)

    By T. F. Rhiselton Dyer

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    About this ebook

    The English countryside was full of customs and superstitions relating to the animals that were seen in every day life. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateNov 3, 2011
    ISBN9781447491507
    Some Notes on English Animal Lore - Birds, Animals, Insects and Reptiles (Folklore History Series)

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      Book preview

      Some Notes on English Animal Lore - Birds, Animals, Insects and Reptiles (Folklore History Series) - T. F. Rhiselton Dyer

      BIRDS.

      The Cuckoo—Robin—Wren—Swallow—Yellowhammer—Martin—Nightingale—Lark—Kingfisher—Rook—Raven—Crow—Magpie—Chaffinch—Owl—Woodpecker—Peacock—Cock—Hen—Chicken—Duck—Plover—Dotterel—Swan—Ringdove—Peewit—Seagull—Pigeon.

      BIRDS have, at all times, been in most countries the subject of a very varied folk-lore, and the superstitious and credulous have generally discovered in their movements omens and prognostications of coming events. These, however, in many cases, must be looked upon as the result of mere caprice, since we find numerous birds with an extensive folk-lore, whereas to all outward appearance they seem to have no claim to such prominence. It is often extremely difficult to trace superstitions of any kind to their source, but those connected with birds, like all others, no doubt have frequently originated in isolated occurrences. Thus, in ancient times, if a certain bird was seen to fly over a city just before a calamity of any kind, it was ever after regarded as a bird of ill-omen, and shunned as such.

      The North American Indians have a beautiful myth, says Hugh Macmillan, in his charming book, ‘The Sabbath of the Fields,’ concerning a mystical bird, that, coming in the summer evenings when the moon is full, sings in the pine groves, beside their wigwams, ethereal songs of the spirit land, bringing tidings of departed friends. May we not, he adds, look upon the cuckoo as our mystical bird, which comes to us when the year is at its full, greatest in beauty and brightest, in bloom, to speak to us of that land which is very far off, and of the lost and loved ones who dwell in it? But a brief season it stays with us. It vanishes with the bloom of the year; and its last note in departure gives expression, as it were, to what the fading of the spring flowers and the soberer green of the woodlands silently proclaim. According to the Gloucestershire peasant:—

      "The cuckoo comes in April,

      Sings a song in May;

      Then in June another tune,

      And then she flies away."

      It is, indeed, no doubt, because this strange mysterious little harbinger of spring comes amongst us to announce its joyous heaven-sent message—telling how the dreary winter is past and the bright sunny days of summer nigh at hand—that he has been so gladly welcomed at all times, and even acquired a superstitious reverence.

      The cry of cuckoo is the note of the male only, that of the female being a harsh, screaming chatter. The custom, says a writer on the subject, of calling a bird ‘she,’ is, however, everywhere persisted in, at any rate amongst the uneducated. And in many of the popular rhymes this peculiarity may be noticed.

      In some parts of the country it is the popular notion that the 21st of April is the day on which the cuckoo makes its first appearance; and at Tenbury, in Worcestershire, it is a belief that it is never heard till Tenbury fair-day (April 20th), or after Pershore fair-day (June 26th). In Wales it is considered unlucky to hear the cuckoo before the 6th of April, but you will have prosperity, is the common saying, for the whole of the year if you first hear it on the 28th. According to some, the 14th of April is the time when the cuckoo’s note is first heard, and many are the anxious ears that eagerly listen for it, as much significance is attached to this event. Thus, in the north of England, it is regarded as an unfortunate omen for anyone to have no money in his pocket when he hears the cuckoo for the first time in a season, and much care is taken to avoid such an occurrence. In Norfolk it is a widespread superstition that whatever you are doing when you first hear the cuckoo, that you will do most frequently all the year.* It was, formerly, a very common belief that if a young woman ran into the fields early in the morning to hear the cuckoo, and, as soon as she heard it, took off her left shoe and looked into it, she would there find a man’s hair of exactly the same colour as that of her future husband. In the ‘Connoisseur,’ an allusion is made to this custom. I got up last May morning and went into the fields to hear the cuckoo, and when I pulled off my left shoe I found a hair in it exactly the same colour with his. Gay, too, in his ‘Shepherd’s Week (4th Pastoral), speaks of it:—

      "When first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,

      And call with welcome note the budding spring,

      I straightway set a-running with such haste,

      Deb’rah that ran the smock scarce ran so fast;

      Till, spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,

      Upon a rising bank I sat adown,

      And doff’d my shoe, and by my troth I swear,

      Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair,

      As like to Lubberkin’s in curl and hue

      As if upon his comely pate it grew."

      Cornishmen regard it as a good omen to hear the first cuckoo from the right and from before them; when heard, however, from the left it is a sign of ill-luck.

      In England, as well as in Germany, it is a belief among the peasantry that the cuckoo, if asked, will tell you by the repetition of his cry how many years you have to live. Hence the rhyme:—

      "Cuckoo, cherry-tree,

      Good bird, tell me

      How many years have I to live."

      Kelly, in his ‘Indo-European Tradition and Folklore,’ ascribes the allusion to the cherry-tree, in this and similar rhymes, to the superstition that before the cuckoo ceases his song he must eat three good meals of cherries. In Shropshire it was customary for the labouring classes, as soon as they heard the first cuckoo, to leave off work, and to devote the rest of the day to merry-making, which went by the name of the cuckoo ale.

      The cuckoo rhymes vary in different counties, and nearly all agree as to the time of its arrival, although they differ somewhat as to the date of its departure. The following well-known rhyme is sung in many places:—

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