School: Errew (Mainistir) (roll number 12727)
- Location:
- Errew, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: An Br Ó Broin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0090, Page 062
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Errew (Mainistir)
- XML Page 062
- XML “Bird-Lore”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- The following are the names of the wild birds found in our district. Sparrows, Robins, Blackbirds, Crows, Stares, Mag Pies, Wild Geese, Seagulls Swallows, Corn-crakes, Cuckoo, Curlew's Swans, Goldfinches the Snipe and the Thrush the Yellow Hammer and the Phillipeen.
The Wild Duck builds her nest in the bog and the Wild Geese, builds their nests in a bunch of heath and the Robin builds her nests in a bank where there is a lot of grass. The Wild Duck's nest is made of feathers and heath. The colour of the eggs is blue and sits on them for three weeks.
Boys who rob birds nests will have seven years misfortune. The weather can also be juged, by the (befar) behavour of certain birds. When the Swallows fly high it is the sign of good weather but when they fly low it is the sign of rain.
When [?] you hear the wild geese it is the sign of frost and when the seagulls come inland it is the sign of a storm. If a swan crosses a house a person will die out of that house [?] before the year is out. There does be three small birds flying after the cuckoo and it is sad that they [?] bring her food
