Bird-apprentice

A row of boys or girls stands parallel with another row opposite. Each of the first row chooses the name of some bird, and a member of the other row then calls out all the names of birds he can think of. If the middle member of the first row has chosen either of them, he calls out “Yes,” and all the guessers immediately run to take the place of the first row, the members of which attempt to catch them. If any succeed, they have the privilege of riding in on their captives’ backs.—Ogbourne, Wilts (H. S. May).

Birds, Beasts, and Fishes

B×××××××h = Bullfinch
E××××××t = Elephant
S×××××××h = Swordfish

This is a slate game, and two or more children play. One writes the initial and final letters of a bird’s, beast’s, or fish’s name, making crosses (×) instead of the intermediate letters of the word, stating whether the name is that of bird, beast, or fish. The other players must guess in turn what the name is. The first one who succeeds takes for himself the same number of marks as there are crosses in the word, and then writes the name of anything he chooses in the same manner. If the players are unsuccessful in guessing the name, the writer takes the number to his own score and writes another. The game is won when one player gains a certain number of marks previously decided upon as “game.”—Barnes (A. B. Gomme).

Bittle-battle

The Sussex game of “[Stoolball].” There is a tradition that this game was originally played by the milkmaids with their milking-stools, which they used for bats; but this word makes it more probable that the stool was the wicket, and that it was defended with the bittle, which would be called the bittle-bat.—Parish’s Sussex Dialect.

See “[Stoolball].”

Bitty-base

Bishop Kennet (in MS. Lansd. 1033) gives this name as a term for “[Prisoner’s Base].”—Halliwell’s Dictionary.