English Folklore Author:Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. BIRDS. The Cuckoo ? Robin ? Wren ? Swallow ? Yellowhammer ? Martin ?Nightingale ? Lark ? Kingfisher ? Rook ? Raven ? Crow ? Magpie ? Chaffinch... more » ? 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 beautifulmyth, 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 expressio...« less