Monthly Bulletin 3 



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 Members without further payment. The money received from Life Member- 

 ships goes into tlie Reserve Fund of the Society, making a gift of Life 

 Membership of peculiar value because of its permanency. 



QUAINT ITEMS OF BIRD-LORE 



Quaint tales in which bird-lore and folk-lore meet are always of inter- 

 est to the editor. Among those received lately are two more wordings of 

 the bobolink's song, as follows: 



"Bobolink, bobolink, 

 He hawl a hairbrand, 

 Pewee steel smart, 

 Ain't I very light? 



Oh h, yes. 



Whew! — dingle, dingle, dingle." 



"Go to milk; go to milk; 

 Oh Miss Phillisy, 

 Dear Miss Phillisy, 

 What will Willie say 

 If you don't go to milk? 

 No butter, no cheese, 

 No cheese, no cheese; 

 No butter nor cheese 

 If you don't go to milk." 



The following has also been given as the wording of the blackbird's 

 song. Possibly the English blackbird's song might have a phrasing that 

 would fit this, which does not seem to belong to either grackle or redwing. 

 It would seem to go better with the bobolink. One can but wonder how 

 many of these folk-lore items concerning bird-life have been brought over 

 from old England to New England in early colonial days and, having been 

 fitted more or less loosely to our birds, have come down in local tradition. 

 It runs thus: 



"Little Joe, little Joe, 

 Kissing Judy, kissing Judy; 

 Old leather apron. 

 Calico breeches." 



Apropos of this is a paragraph in an account of a trip to Martha's 

 Vineyard Island by Judge Charles F. Jenney, published in the "Records of 

 Walks and Talks with Nature" conducted by C. J. Maynard. 



