What does 4 Colly birds mean?
“Colly birds” most commonly refers to blackbirds, but it can also be a catch-all term for any small songbirds. Songbirds, including blackbirds, would have been a common menu item at the time of the song’s origin. Four colly birds would not have made much of meal, to be sure.
What is a Colly bird?
“Calling birds” are thought originally to have been colly, or collie, birds—colly meant as black as coal (like collier, a coal miner, or colliery, a mine), so colly birds would have been blackbirds. (
What does a Colly bird look like?
“Colly bird?” It’s essentially a black bird, Armenti said Wednesday. Although both “calling” and “colly” have appeared in versions of the song, “colly,” which is derived from the Old English word for coal, predates “calling” by more than a century, he wrote. And the reference is to the color of the bird, not its voice.
What species are the calling birds?
The “calling bird” in the song is a variation on the word “colly bird” or “collie bird.” The definition of colly is “black,” and it comes from the old word for coal. So, simply put, a calling bird is a blackbird.
What are the 4 calling birds?
The “four calling birds” that we sing about today were, at different times, “four canary birds” and “four mockingbirds,” and before that they show up as “colly birds” or “collie
What does four calling birds mean?
These birds represent faith, hope, and love. This gift hearkens back to 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter written by the apostle Paul. On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . four calling birds. One of the easiest facets of the song’s code to figure out, these fowl are the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Is it “four calling birds” or “four colly birds”?
The “four calling birds” that we sing about today were, at different times, “four canary birds” and “four mockingbirds ,” and before that they show up as “colly birds” or “collie birds ,” which is the archaic term for blackbirds. There were however, for some reason, always four of them.
Which bird is called the king of birds?
Three species of go-away-bird