"A Cock Robin and a Jenny Wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen;
A Spink and a Sparrow
Are the Devil's bow and arrow."
Birds are supposed by some to be somehow cognizant of what is about to happen. A jackdaw is always an unwelcome visitor, if it alight on the window-sill of a sick chamber. A white dove is thought to be a favourable omen; its presence betokens recovery to the person within, or it is an angel in that form ready to convey the soul of a dying person to heaven. I once knew a Wesleyan Methodist who was of opinion that "forgiveness of sins" was assured to her by a small bird, which flew across her path when she had long been praying for a token of this kind. When a Canary-bird sings cheerfully, all is well with the family that keeps it; when it becomes silent, and remains so, there is calamity in store for that household. If you hear the cuckoo shout towards the east, for the first time in any year, and have gold, silver, and copper coin in your pockets, you will never want money during that year.
SWALLOWS.
1. If swallows, or martins, begin to build their nests about a house or barn, it is looked upon as predicating good luck to the occupier. "The more birds the better luck." 2. On the contrary, when they forsake a haunt, the occupiers become apprehensive of misfortune. Hence farmers will always protect such birds, and often ill-use boys who may be stoning them, or attempting to rob their nests.
MAGPIES.
There are, at least in Lancashire and Yorkshire, many curious superstitions connected with this bird. Its appearance singly is still regarded in both these counties by many even of the educated representatives of the last generation, as an evil omen, and some of the customs supposed to break the charm are curious. One is simply to raise the hat as in salutation, another to sign the cross on the breast, and to make the same sign by crossing the thumbs. This last custom is confined to Yorkshire, and I know one elderly gentleman who not only crosses his thumbs, but spits over them when in that position, a practice which was, he says, common in his youth. The superstition applies only to a single magpie, according to the old nursery legend:—
"One for sorrow,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
And four for a birth."[93]
I met a person the other day who solemnly assured me that he had seen a 'pynot' as he came along the road; but he had made the figure of a cross on the mire in the road, in order to avert the evil omen.[94]
In Lancashire they say:—
"One for anger,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth,
Five for rich,
Six for poor,
Seven for a witch:
I can tell you no more."[95]