School: Cnapach (Crappagh) (roll number 7529)

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1. Bird-Lore (continued)

   

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   foliage before the cuckoo arrives. There is an old saying around here:-

   "If the cuckoo arrives on a bare thorn,
   You may sell your cow and buy some corn."

   This means that the crops will be bad if the leaves are not on the trees before the advent of the cuckoo.
   About the month of May we very often see a little bird flying after the cuckoo. it must be that she fascinates it. She doesn't build a nest of her own. She lays her egg on the ground near a robin's or a hedge-sparrow's nest, lifts it in her beak and places in in the nest. When the young cuckoo comes out it eats all the food that the mother bird brings and finally it pushes the rightful heirs out of the nest altogether.
   She is the only bird that does not build a nest. Some birds, notably the swallow, come to same nest year after year. The swallow builds in the eaves of a house. The robin builds

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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

   Brigid Mc Goldrick

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Knockcor, Co. Monaghan

   Collector

   Peter Mc Gorman

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Drumary, Co. Monaghan

   Informant

   Willie Dunne

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Knockcor, Co. Monaghan