A groom who had, when a lad, shot a robin and held it in one of his hands told me that it shook ever after. But they always chase and try to kill the first butterfly of the season; and, should they succeed, they will overcome their enemies—I suppose, in football, etc.
“To hear the first cuckoo of spring on the right ear is lucky, on the left unlucky; as many times as it repeats its notes will the number of years be before the hearer is married. The cuckoo song—
‘In April, come he will,
In May, he sings all day,
In June, he alters his tune,
In July, he prepares to fly,
Come August, go he must’—
is known all over the county, with additions and slight variations, such as—
‘In March, he sits upon his perch,
In Aperel, he tunes his bell.’ ”