School: Bunninadden

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1. Birds

   

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   Birds.
   The birds which are most common in this district are the thrush, blackbird, robin, sparrow, goldfinch, seagull, linnet, jackdaw, swallow, corncrake, cuckoo, lapwing, lark, swan, and the snipe.The cuckoo, the swallow, and the corncrake are migratory birds. The cuckoo comes in April and leaves us in June.The young cuckoo stays with us until August. The swallow comes in May and the corncrake visits us at the end of April. The cuckoo has many peculiar habits.She never builds a nest of her own. She lays her eggs in other birds' nests. The young cuckoo is a very destructive bird. He grows quickly and he is soon as big as the nest. He is usually very greedy. The swallow builds her nest in hay sheds and in barns.She makes a very big nest and lays four or five eggs. When the young ones come out, she is very busy seeking food for them. When they are old enough, she teaches them to fly. The corncrake is another migratory bird. In the evening and early in the morning we hear her in the meadows. The corncrake is not a very big bird. The wren is a bird which has peculiar habits. She builds three nests. Two dummy nests and a real one are built. When she is out seeking food, if she sees anyone near she flies into one of the dummy nests. If they go to see the nest into which she flew, there will be no eggs in it. Some birds are cross when they are hatching. The wild goose is one and the

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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

   Mary Gallagher

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Ballynaraw North, Co. Sligo

   Informant

   Mr Martin Gallagher

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballynaraw North, Co. Sligo