School: Loughill
- Location:
- Ballymunterhiggin, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Eibhlis Ní Mhathghamhna
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1026, Page 209
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- XML “Bird-Lore - The Crow”
- XML “Bird-Lore - The Cuckoo”
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- “The cuckoo comes in April,
Sings her song in May.
In the middle of June
She turns her tune
And then she flies away. Another old rhyme is:-“The cuckoo is a small bird,
She sings as she flies
She brings us good tidings
And tells us no lies.”If one hears her in the morning when one is fasting one will die that year. She builds no nest but lays one egg in a thrushes’ nest. She throws out of it the thrushes' eggs before she lays her own. Sometimes she lays it in a lark’s nest. The thrush or lark rears her young. The young cuckoo is very proud because it is bigger than the other young birds and before long(continues on next page)