CHAPTER XVII
THE ROBIN AND THE WREN
ONE side of the subject remains to be discussed. It is the relation of the robin to the wren. Many custom rhymes, legends, and nursery pieces name the birds together, and they sometimes enlarge on the jealousy of the birds, and on the fact that their presence was reckoned mutually exclusive. Perhaps the birds, looked at from one point of view, were accounted the representatives of the seasons, and, as such, came and went by turns.
The robin and the wren are mentioned together in several custom rhymes, some of which mention other birds also:—
The robin redbreast and the wren
Are God's cock and hen.
(1826, p. 292.)
In Warwickshire they say:—
[Pg 201] The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen;
The martin and the swallow
Are God Almighty's bow and arrow.
(1870, p. 188.)
In Lancashire this takes the form:—
The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen;
The spink and the sparrow are the de'il's bow and arrow.
(1892, p. 275.)
This association of the sparrow with the bow and arrow reappears in some nursery pieces, as we shall see later.