School: Kiffa
- Location:
- Kiffagh, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: Helen Dinneen
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0993, Page 085
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- XML Page 085
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- (continued from previous page)are bluish with brown spots, and she lays six eggs.
The cuckoo comes to us in April, and she sings for us the whole months of May and June. She is a very mean bird, and all the other birds hate her, for one reason, because she lays her eggs in another bird's nest and makes that bird hatch her eggs as well as her own, but worse than all, when the eggs are hatched the young cuckoo crushes the other birds out of her nest, after all the trouble the innocent bird had.
"The Cuckoo comes in April",
"She sings her song in May",
In leafy June she changes tune",
"And July she flies away".
She is a white and fawn bird, and is much the same as the magpie in shape and it is not known how many eggs she lays, as she lays eggs in so many birds nests.
There are various beliefs about the cuckoo one is if she sings on a bare thorn, we will have a very bad season to follow. If a farmer is late in sowing his oats, and the cuckoo is heard while doing so, it is called cuckoo oats, and is supposed to be too(continues on next page)
- Collector
- W. Lowry
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Graddum, Co. Cavan
