1g01-1902.| The Folk-Lore of Natural History. 337 
At one time, on St Stephen’s day, the common people of 
the Isle of Man assembled and carried about a wren tied to 
the branch of a tree, singing a dogverel song called “The 
hunting of the Wren.” This custom is believed to have taken 
its origin from an effort of the early Christian missionaries to 
extinguish a reverence for the wren which had been held by 
the Druids as the king of birds. In Ireland the same custom 
must have prevailed. In the year 1845 we find a proclama- 
tion issued by Richard Dowden, Mayor of Cork, forbidding, on 
the score of cruelty, the hunting of the wren on St Stephen’s 
day. Whatever may have been the origin of the custom in 
Ireland, there is no doubt that on St Stephen’s day the “ wren 
boys” went about the hedges pelting the unfortunate victim 
with sticks and stones, and carrying it about when caught on 
the top of a pole in the midst of ivy or holly, singing some 
doggerel verses beginning with— 
“The wren, the wren, the king of all the birds, 
St Stephen’s day was caught in the furze,” &e. 
THE SWALLOW. 
There is no bird whose appearance is more welcome, and 
whose departure is watched with greater regret, than the 
swallow. And it is round this bird we have had some very 
pretty fancies developed regarding hibernation as opposed to 
emigration, but into these I shall not enter. “There is a 
tradition,” says Dr Henderson of Chirnside, “amongst boys of 
the county, that if a swallow fly betwixt a person’s body and 
his arm that person will lose the power of his arm for ever. 
It is obvious there can be little danger of such a thing taking 
place, yet I remember when I was a boy I had a great dread 
of the swallow when she was skimming past me on her swift 
pinions.” When swallows fly low and sweep close over pools 
of water, rain may be expected. 
“ When swallows fleet soar high and sport in air, 
He told us that the welkin would be fair.” 
Old writers tell us that when the young swallows are 
hatched they are blind for some time, and that the parent 
birds bring to the nest a plant called Chelidonium or swallow- 
