Christmas Connections: Part 4 of 12
Some people think they are calling birds, but they are not. They are colly birds, with the adjective related to the word 'collier' or 'collyer' — that is, one whose trade is the transport of coal. A colly bird is a bird as black as coal — a 'coally' bird.
When four colly birds are invoked, they are blackbirds, not ravens. They are in fact Turdus merula, a kind of thrush (yes, that is what the Latin turdus means).
The four-in-hand is a common phrase, used of coach horses and neckties. But one has to wonder about that other nursery rhyme; when four-and-twenty blackbirds were baked into a pie, were four of them Christmas blackbirds and the rest of them just a convenient score?
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"On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me four colly birds."
When four colly birds are invoked, they are blackbirds, not ravens. They are in fact Turdus merula, a kind of thrush (yes, that is what the Latin turdus means).
The four-in-hand is a common phrase, used of coach horses and neckties. But one has to wonder about that other nursery rhyme; when four-and-twenty blackbirds were baked into a pie, were four of them Christmas blackbirds and the rest of them just a convenient score?
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"On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me four colly birds."
etched with acid at 12:07:00 am
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