Cuckoo songs :: :: University of Virginia Library

I love the sweet linnet, the lark, and the thrush,
And the gold-throated blackbird with a song in each bush;
The finch and the robin, I love every one,
But not the pied magpie that's walking alone.

For whether you're going your sweetheart to meet,
On business or pleasure, in market or street,
To church or to chapel, a bad sign it is
If you meet that one magpie a-taking his ease.

But if it should chance you to see that ill sight,
First look well around you to left and to right;
For if he's companioned, the two are for mirth,
And three for a wedding and four for a birth.

Yet if he's alone show not wrath to the bird.
A little politeness, I've heard it averred,
Will please men and magpies; so throw not a stone,
But lift your hat kindly, and bow, and pass on.

Bow once, twice and thrice, and the bird, I've heard say,
Will return you a curtsey, both merry and gay.
And this is a charm, sirs, that, well understood,
Will take away bad luck and bring you the good.

Now all ye sweet lovers, I've told ye my charm
The magpie's ill-luck to evade and disarm.
And I wish you in due time two magpies for mirth,
And three for a wedding and four for a birth.