[242] From Rachel Du Port.
Editor’s Notes.
“Another version of this story is: The robin redbreast brought fire to the Island, and by so doing burnt his breast, as he had been carrying a lighted torch in his beak. When he arrived with his breast-feathers burnt and raw and red, all the other birds were so sorry for him that they each gave him a feather, except the owl, who would not, so that is why he no longer dares show his face by day.”—Told me in 1896 by the late Miss Annie Chepmell, who had heard it from an old servant.
“Quand la rouge-gorge alla chercher l’ feu, ses plumes furent toutes brulées, alors les oiseaux en eurent pitié et ils résolurent de lui donner chacun une plume pour la réhabiller. Seul le chat-huant, oiseau orgueilleux et peu compatissant, refusa. C’est pour cela que, lorsqu’il se montre au jour, tous les petits oiseaux crient après lui, et la rouge-gorge en particulier, qui, par son cri, lui reproche son orgeuil.”—Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne, Tome II., p. 201.
[243] One country tradition says that the wren brought water to Guernsey.
[244] From J. R. Tardif, Esq.
[245] See “Folk-Lore of the North of England,” in the Monthly Packet, February, 1862.
Cuckoo Rhymes.
“En Avril
Le coucou crie