SCANDINAVIAN FOLK-LORE OF BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 



PART L 



While yet a young boy in Denmark, 

 I became very much interested in the 

 study and observation of birds, but the 

 nomenclature in our natural histories did 

 not always please me, as the names given 

 therein often, as it then seemed to me, 

 were made without due respect to the 

 characteristics of the birds. This led me 

 to collect and use what popular names 

 I could find, and by recording the folk- 

 lore told me regarding bird names, I soon 

 became interested in the position the birds 

 had occupied. I found that it required 

 much study and patience to collect folk- 

 lore, as much of the knowledge of past 

 generations had becomie almost forgotten 

 or had been changed. However, by com- 

 parison with folk-lore gathered by other 

 collectors and in other countries, much 

 of what is obscure and hard to under- 

 stand is made clear and intelligible. 



We find, however, that in our present 

 generation there is not near the open eye 

 for nature, that was present a few gener- 

 ations back, while yet the fancy and imag- 

 ination of the people considered the 

 forces of nature as expressions of the 

 will of being's peopling every nook of 

 ocean and brook, and every recess in the 

 deep and solemn forests. 



In Denmark, as in most other Euro- 

 pean countries, the common people were 

 for years under the yoke in more than 

 one way, but yet they had an open eye 

 for, and lived on good terms with nature. 

 When the peasant sighed under the yoke 

 of bondage, he understood nature better 

 than he often does to-day ; then his ears 

 were open to the cook of the cuckoo and 

 the songs of the birds ; he then was 

 dreaming of flying, on the wings of the 

 swallow, to the distant land in the far 

 East. There, maidens spin gold; there, 

 children play with golden apples ; there, 



grows the lily; there, sings the cuckoo; 

 there, is joy and eternal spring. 



Now, when the yoke no more presses 

 on his shoulders, he has turned away 

 from the poetical kingdom of nature, and 

 nature becomes dead to him. The fairy 

 no longer dances in the meadows; the 

 river-sprite no longer plays the golden 

 harp in the stream. Yet, I am glad to 

 add that more and more of the common 

 people are now beginning to open both 

 eyes and ears to nature. It is a happy 

 sign of the times to see so many people 

 studying natural history ; not from a sys- 

 tematic text-book, but from actual life; 

 and especially by becoming comrades 

 with the birds, or with some other 

 branch of the great kingdom of beautiful 

 nature, which has touched their fancy. 



It is my object to give some idea of 

 how rich is the natural history of the 

 common people. I shall endeavor to give 

 a picture in which a number of birds will 

 be seen, and I hope it will give an idea 

 of what is found in the Saga of the 

 "Birds of Passage." In most cases I 

 shall confine myself to^ the folk-lore of 

 the North. 



Let us imagine ourselves in Denmark 

 in the latter part of June ; the roses are 

 in full bloom, midsummer-day has come, 

 the nests are empty, trees and bushes are 

 alive with young birds and the nightin- 

 gale is nO' longer singing. It seems sad 

 when the birds, one after another, cease 

 to sing, and the forests become hushed 

 long before the time of falling leaves. 

 Why is it the nightingale sings but such 

 a short time? On that question folk- 

 lore has given many answers. I shall here 

 give one from France. The nightingale 

 once went to sleep under the fresh foliage 

 of the grape vine, but when he awoke he 

 was caught in a snare : a long tendril had 



