School: Shanakill, Roscrea

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1. Bird-Lore (continued)

   “There are alot of birds around this district...”

   

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   The sparrow builds her nest in house-eaves and ivy. She makes it of hay, feathers and hair. She lays about 6 eggs.
   Stories about birds:
   The wren is the bird that betrayed St. Stephen. When the soldiers were searching for St. Stephen they passed one day under the tree where he was hiding. They were going away when a wren flew out of the tree and flew around the captain's head and flew back into the tree again. The captain noticed the anxiety of the bird and went back to the tree to see the cause of it and there they found St. Stephen.
   The curlew is supposed to say "more rain" and the wood-quest is supposed to say "I know, I know", and some people say that what she says is "My toe bleeds Betty."
   The crow was the first bird to build a nest and then the rest of the birds came to her to learn how to build the nest. The crow said "leave a stick this way and another that way." But the birds flew away one by one because they didn't understand the crow. The wood-quest stayed on watching the crow and for every stick the crow laid down the wood-quest would say "I know." When the nest was half made the crow got vexed at the wood-quest and said "Ah here you know too much, go and build the rest yourself."

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. agents (~1)
      1. animal-lore (~1,185)
         1. bird-lore (~2,478)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Daniel Quinlan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Shanakill, Co. Tipperary

   Informant

   Mr Quinlan

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Shanakill, Co. Tipperary

   Informant

   Mrs Quinlan

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Shanakill, Co. Tipperary