64 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
feature of ornithology. This introduction to the folk lore of
birds from the Essex point of view is based only on matter
which has come to my notice, and it is probable that further
searches will add to the stock of information. I know of no
better work than Swainson's Provincial Names and Folk Lore
of British Birds, and it has been of great service to me in preparing
this paper.
The amount of lore of which birds are the theme is remarkable,
and if other classes of the animal world had been endowed with
similar prodigality the dimensions of the whole would reach
striking proportions. Thus the amount of available matter has
influenced to some extent the plan of construction of this paper.
In the first place, I have confined myself to birds on the Essex
list (A History of the Birds of Essex, 1929), and in the works I
have used I have found 87 Essex birds about which there is
folk lore. The tales and romances which the folk of many ages
have created around these 87 birds are a different matter, for
we have no knowledge that most of them had any association
with Essex. An examination of the subject has revealed that
a series of aspects, common to a greater or lesser number of birds,
exists. It is along these lines that I place before you an Essex
basis of the folk lore of birds. I have selected nine of the more
general of these controlling influences. They are weather,
augury, medicine, talisman, protection, veneration, oath, religion
and proverb. These heads do not cover all the knowledge
which is available. Examples of each aspect will be introduced
and followed by some to illustrate the. stories, etc., which do not
fall under the nine chosen heads. The folk lore attributed to a
particular species is frequently of a varied nature; as an example
I mention the Swallow, which comes under five of the aspects
I have adopted, and there is matter relating to this species,
which is not thus covered.
That weather should play such an important part in the
folk lore of birds will surprise no one and particularly
ornithologists, for, although weather movements are not fully
understood and require much more attention, yet the reaction
of birds to altered weather conditions is very evident. In the
case of weather the relation of cause and effect is very obvious.
The Rook is one of the birds most commonly believed in as a