IRISH BIRD SUPERSTITIONS. 



HE HEDGEWARBLER,known 



more popularly as the " Irish 

 Nightingale," is the object of 

 a most tender superstition. 

 B}' day it is a roystering fellow enough, 

 almost as impish as our American 

 Mocking Bird, in its emulative attempts 

 to demonstrate its ability to out- 

 sing the original songs of any feathered 

 melodist that ventures near its haunts 

 among the reeds by the murmuring 

 streams. But when it sings at night, 

 and particularly at the exact hour of 

 midnight, its plaintive and tender 

 notes are no less than the voices of 

 babes that thus return from the spirit 

 land to soothe their poor, heart-aching 

 mothers for the great loss of their 

 darlings. The hapless little Hedge 

 Sparrow has great trouble in raising 

 any young at all, as its beautiful 

 bluish-green eggs when strung above 

 the hob are in certain localities 

 regarded as a potent charm against 

 divers witch spells, especially those 

 which gain an entrance to the cabin 

 through the wide chimney. On the 

 contrary, the grayish-white and brown- 

 mottled eggs of the Wag-tail are never 

 molested, as the grotesque motion of 

 the tail of this tiny attendant of the 

 herds has gained for it the uncanny 

 reputation and name of the Devil's bird. 



THE STARLING, THE MAGPIE, AND 

 THE CROW. 



When the Starling does not follow 

 the grazing cattle some witch charm 

 has been put upon them. The Mag- 

 pie, as with the ancient Greeks, is the 

 repository of the soul of an evil-minded 

 and gossiping woman. A round- 

 tower or castle ruin unfrequented by 

 Jackdaws is certainly haunted. The 

 " curse of the crows " is quite as 

 malevolent as the " curse of Crom- 

 well." When a " Praheen Cark " or 

 Hen Crow is found in the solitudes of 

 mountain glens, away from human 

 habitations, it assuredly possesses the 



wandering soul of an impenitent sinner. 

 If a Raven hover near a herd of cattle 

 or sheep, a withering blight has already 

 been set upon the animals, hence the 

 song of the bard Benean regarding the 

 rights of the kings of Cashel 1,400 

 years ago that a certain tributary 

 province should present the king 

 yearly " a thousand goodly cows, not 

 the cows of Ravens." The Waxwing, 

 the beautiful Incendiara avis of Pliny, 

 whose breeding haunts have never yet 

 been discovered by man, are the torches 

 of the Bean-sidhe^ or Banshees. When 

 the Cuckoo utters her first note in the 

 spring, if you chance to hear it, you 

 will find under your right foot a white 

 hair ; and if you keep this about your 

 person, the first name you thereafter 

 hear will be that of your future hus- 

 band or wife. 



FOUR MOURNFUL SUPERSTITIONS. 



Four other birds provide extremely 

 mournful and pathetic superstitions. 

 The Linnet pours forth the most 

 melancholy song of all Irish birds, and 

 I have seen honest-hearted peasants 

 affected by it to tears. On inquiry I 

 found the secret cause to be the belief 

 that its notes voiced the plaints of 

 some unhappy soul in the spirit land. 

 The changeless and interminable chant 

 of the Yellow Bunting is the subject of 

 a very singular superstition. Its notes, 

 begun each afternoon at the precise 

 hour of 3, are regarded as summons to 

 prayer for souls not yet relieved from 

 purgatorial penance. A variety of 

 Finch has notes which resemble what 

 is called the " Bride-groom's song" of 

 unutterable dolor for a lost bride — a 

 legend of superstition easily traceable 

 to the German Hartz mountain 

 peasantry; while in the solemn intensity 

 of the Bittern's sad and plaintive 

 boom, still a universally received token 

 of spirit-warning, can be recognized 

 the origin of the mournful cries of 

 the wailine Banshee. 



