School: Tomhaggard

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1. Wild Birds

   

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   The birds that inhabit this district are as follows. The Heron; this is very large and may be seen about lakes and ponds after fish. There are a lot of those birds in Butlerstown and Mr Boxwell buys fish for them and puts grape nuts on the trees for them to eat. They build their nest on the top of deal trees. They are very noisy and you could hear them screeching at night. Other birds are the seagulls, they are to be found about the lough and feed on the fish there. The May birds are here now, they come here in the month of May. The wild duck is also a native and builds her nest in marshes and ponds. Also the moor-hen or water-hen is very plentiful and build their nests in water among the rushes. There are plenty of swans on the lake now. They build their nests there. The crows are here too and they start to build their nests the first day of March, and if the first of March falls on Sunday, they won't start until the next day.
   Magpies are about here too and build their nest in trees. They make a very cosy nest all covered over. An old yarn tells about the crow going to the magpie to know how to build a nest. The magpie would say "Put a stick this way" and the crow would say " I know". And everything the magpie told her to do, the crow kept saying "I know". In the end the magpie said " When you know so well, do it yourself ", so that is the reason the crow's nest has no roof, because the Magpie did not finish her instructions.

   

   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 Alice Dempsey

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Ballyboher, Co. Wexford