School: Cnoc an Éin Fhinn (Birdhill) (roll number 13991)

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1. Bird-Lore (continued)

   

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   robin is the most familier. Generally about a yard's range they are known to pick up crumbs thrown out to them and in hard weather they are also known to come into a house and perch on the table. Their chief enemy is the cat. It is said how they got the red breast was picking leaves off a white-thorn bush to cover two babes they found murdered in a wood. Another legiend says that they perched on the head of Our Savour after the cruel ministers of Satan putting on the crown of thorns. They got prodded with thorns and blood flowed from their breasts. The cock and hen blackbirds have two different colours on their bills. The male bird's bill is almost red, and the female bird's bill is of a brownish colour. About forty years ago there was a white blackbird in the wood, near where I live. Several birdcatchers tried to catch her and one day a man named Murnane was fowling and he shot her. He sold her to a naturalist in Dublin at a big price.
   Of all the birds the cuckoo has the most peculiar habits. She never builds a nest only but she pitches on some high tree and watches a bird, particularly the hedge-sparrow going into her nest to lay her eggs. When the hedge-sparrow goes out the cuckoo goes in and lays her egg in the hedge-sparrow's nest. The cuckoo only deposits one egg in any nest. The

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. gníomhairí (~1)
      1. seanchas ainmhithe (~1,185)
         1. seanchas na n-éan (~2,478)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Thomas Teefey

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Coosane, Co. Thiobraid Árann

   Informant

   Michael Teefey

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   54

   Occupation

   Railway worker

   Address

   Coosane, Co. Thiobraid Árann