Old Sayings,Anecdotes,Related to Wildlife

[k4t3]

Loripo, n'ere cast a clout...always brought up to believe this was clothes stay on till the may blossom out, not the month gone..but thats Yorkshire n may b different in other regions

[Cheryl]

Originally Posted by loripo

Erm - Magpies...
one for sorrow
two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
Eight for a lie
Nine for a truth
Ten for the secret of eternal youth

Lori, I'd not heard those last 3 lines before, I always thought it stopped at 7.

I've had a quick look in my book of Natural History of Myths and Legends/Folk Lore Tales and Traditions to see if there was something about "Stone the Crows" but I couldn't find anything but did find a similar rhyme (apparantly from Essex) for crows:

One's unlucky
Two's lucky
Three is health
Four is wealth
Five is sickness
And six is death

From what I've read in this book Crows seem to represent death or bad news in general - it's a good thing I'm not superstitious - touchwood

[loripo]

There seem to be lots of versions with different lines 8 to 10 for magpies, no idea why!

[posie]

Originally Posted by Muggsy

I've always believed that to be "rain before 7 (am) dry before 11 (am)

Yes Muggsy, you're 'dead' right, I mixed two sayings up. the other one is ''Sinshine and rain, rain again tomorrow'' Actually, not Sinshine but Sunshine

[posie]

Cheryl, ref crows being bad news, Black Witches used to have a crow,but then they had a black cat, and they are thought to be good luck if they cross your path.

[posie]

Originally Posted by k4t3

Loripo, n'ere cast a clout...always brought up to believe this was clothes stay on till the may blossom out, not the month gone..but thats Yorkshire n may b different in other regions

Down here in hampshire we go by the May, or hawthorn blossom generally, but you'd be surprised how many **people** think it is the month, they probably have heard the saying but don't even know that Hawthorn blossom is called 'May'.............Just for interest, the Hawthorn has leaves before blossom, whereas Blackthorn has blossom before leaves(the fruit is sloes)

[posie]

Originally Posted by davecatt

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

So true Dave, I think that is one of the most-used sayings round here.Poe.

[loripo]

How about
March winds and April showers
bring forth May's flowers

[posie]

And if there are lots of berries(particularly Holly) on the trees and bushes we are in for a hard winter (I presume it means that *nature* supplies the birds and animals with good food supply for hard winter because they use up more calories keeping warm)

[Geoff F]

Here is an old song about the Cuckoo. It is written in the Dartmoor Dialect so I will try to retype it correctly.

The gugu es a purty bird.
Er zingeth as er vlieth;
Er bring'th gude tidins,
Er tell'th naw lies;
Er zucketh swate vlowers
Tu kaype er voice clear,
An' whan er zingeth gugu
The zummer draeth near.

Hope you can understand that.