The popular holiday tune “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a bird lovers pleasure. The lucky recipient ends up with 23 birds by the end of the tune if youre counting. And maybe more: some believe the “5 golden rings” is a recommendation to the rings of ring-necked pheasants.
The majority of the birds noted are relatively basic barnyard fowl: the swans and geese and hens and doves.
Others are a bit less clear. Recently, I checked out possible candidates for the “partridge in a pear tree.”
Next concern: What are the calling birds? Is there a particular bird the song is referencing?
The response may not be what you believe.
© Frank Kidson/ Wikimedia Commons
Changing Lyrics
” Twelve Days” was very first released in 1780, but it existed as an oral tradition long before that. And even after it was published, the song was most often simply given from generation to generation. In time, lyrics change.
In the original released version, its “4 colly birds” not “4 calling birds.” In England at the time, “colly birds” was a name offered to blackbirds. Ill explore this a bit more in a minute.
Though, I do discover it assuring that mishandling tune lyrics has a long history. Yes, the ever-popular 80s pop song about academic accomplishment.
© the mad bird lady/ Flickr
The other reality is that the song has actually just altered to much better fit the times. While traditionalists never ever wish to hear this, pop music, stories and vacations shift and morph through the years.
Earlier versions of “Twelve Days” included some completely different lyrics, consisting of “bears a baiting.” This referenced the then popular “sport” of binding a bear, then having fighting pets effort to impair and kill it. Obviously, this would today be considered a holiday buzzkill.
As the term “colly bird” became unfamiliar to listeners, its natural they would change it with the more familiar “calling birds.” If its a huge vague, it has a nice ring to it even.
Nevertheless, the initial version of “colly birds”– a gift of blackbirds– raises its own concerns.
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4 blackbirds? Why would this be in the song?
The blackbird (Turdus merula) is a typical thrush in England and Europe. As a folk song-worthy present, it may not be as odd as it first appears. After all, this gift could be developed into a pie.
An illustration from the 1920s The Boyd Smith Mother Goose. © Elmer Boyd Smith/ Wikimedia Commons
“Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye, four and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds started to sing.
This nursery rhyme itself might have hidden political meanings, but it likewise brightens an actual royal fad: live blackbird pie. Yes, this was a thing.
As naturalist Jim Hurley explains, at one point it was big hit to conceal a bunch of live songbirds under a pie crust, then serve it at a banquet.
As Hurley composes, “The production was reached the table, the external crust of the pie was opened and to the delight of the put together guests the birds flew out calling as they got away from their confinement within the external pastry housing.” Please dont attempt this at home.
Eating Blackbirds
” Colly birds” most commonly refers to blackbirds, but it can also be a catch-all term for any small songbirds. Songbirds, consisting of blackbirds, would have been a typical menu product at the time of the tunes origin.
Four colly birds would not have made much of meal, to be sure. Thrushes were frequently eaten whole, bones and all. Often they were baked in a pie.
If this seems gross or unusual, consider this: Songbirds are still extensively searched for food in lots of parts of the world. Songbirds moving from Europe to North Africa deal with an onslaught of traps and guns, specifically in the Mediterranean region.
The ortolan bunting is a threatened European songbird consumed as a conventional French delicacy. © Michel Idre/ Flickr
According to a short article in The Guardian, between 11 million to 36 million songbirds are killed or caught in Mediterranean nations each year. In Italy, where some 5 million songbirds are poached every year, individuals use live birds as decoys to entice numerous songbird types into other traps and intricate nets.
Birds are hunted in these countries for food, for the marketplace and for sport. Since it is a custom, they are also hunted. However traditions, like holiday tunes, can and do change. The searching of songbirds presents a tremendous hazard to these types. Bird supporters are working to end this carnage. Perhaps one route– being taken in nations like Lebanon– is dealing with hunters to establish limits and ban damaging practices. This would allow a small, sustainable take, and continue traditions, much as “gamebirds” are managed.
Associated Articles
The popular holiday tune “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a bird enthusiasts pleasure. If youre counting, the lucky recipient ends up with 23 birds by the end of the tune. Is there a particular bird the song is referencing?
In England at the time, “colly birds” was a name offered to blackbirds. Bird advocates are working to end this carnage.
Routine readers of Cool Green Science tend to like birding and feeding backyard birds. Birds are a pleasure, a passion, and maybe even the reason youre a conservationist. Birds have always been very important to people, in intricate and myriad methods. Those complicated relationships continue to unfold.
There are tips of our past relationships with birds still among us … often concealed in the lyrics of a popular song.
The next time you hear “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you can picture blackbirds flying away. Just do not get any concepts about hiding them beneath a pie crust.