FABLE AND FOLKLORE 255 



whether in some principal cases reverence for the bird 

 itself did not precede the conception of the divinity it 

 afterward typified. 



Another tale of birds acting as sentinels explains how 

 the wren came to be so mortally hated by the Irish, whose 

 cruel "hunting of the wren" is described in another 

 chapter. According to Lady Wilde, 00 a student of Irish 

 folklore, this hatred is owing to the fact that once when 

 Irish troops were approaching to attack a part of 

 Thomas Cromwell's army (about 1650) "wrens came 

 and perched on the Irish drums, and by their tapping 

 and noise aroused the English soldiers, who fell on the 

 Irish troops and killed all of them." This is a variant 

 of a legend far older than Cromwell's campaigning; 

 and it is not the true explanation of the antipathy the 

 cruder Irish and Manxmen still feel toward this innocent 

 little songster, while at the same time they have a pecu- 

 liar tenderness for the robin. 



A third parallel is found in the annoyance caused 

 the Scottish Covenanters. Many a meeting of pious 

 Presbyterians in some hidden, heathery glen of the misty 

 hills was discovered and roughly dispersed "because of 

 the hovering, bewailing plovers, fearful for their young, 

 clamoring overhead." The poet Leyden alludes to the 

 long-remembered grudge against this suspicious bird 

 when, speaking of the religious refugees on the moors, 

 he writes: 



The lapwing's clamorous whoop attends their flight, 

 Pursues their steps where'er the wanderers go, 

 Till the shrill scream betrays them to the foe. 



Returning to ancient history, two bird-stories of 

 Alexander the Great are delightful as illustrating how 



