gloria.p wrote:
> Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
>> On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me '4 colly
>> birds'.......NOT calling birds. A 'colly bird' is a blackbird,
>> colly being taken from collier - or coal/charcoal
>> preparer/deliverer. It was yet another foodstuff given as a
>> gift....four colly birds to be eaten during the fortnight of
>> Christmas.
>
>
>
> Sorry, I couldn't get past the thought of crows in a pie shell.
>
> gloria p

Here's an English nursery rhyme I remember from my childhood. Never
could get past the idea of eating those birds:

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!