"--Bryan" > wrote in message
...
On Dec 28, 3:41 pm, "Virginia Tadrzynski" > wrote:
> "Dora" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
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>
>
>
> > 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!
>
> That rhyme was a reference when describing 'colly birds'....saying that
> 'blackbirds baked in a pie' was the reason behind inferring that the four
> colly birds were a foodstuff and not a 'pet-type' gift.

I don't thing that the French hens nor the turtle doves were meant to
be eaten either.

> -ginny

--Bryan

Funny, having grown up near a bunch of hunters, I have had partridge, dove
(often referred to as turtledoves) and French hens are a specific breed of
chicken....so all should be considered food stuffs......it's once we hit
five that we cease to eat what is proffered.
-ginny