Research source

THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE, THE NIGHTINGALE, THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND

Date of account: English edition published 1872
Source: Zoological Mythology; or, The Legends of Animals, Volume 2 (of 2)
Reference: Zoological Mythology; or, The Legends of Animals, Volume 2 (of 2) · selected passage 84
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-25

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

le as the singer of the night.--The nightingale as the messenger of lovers; he now helps them, and now compels them to separate.--The sun dries the nightingale up; a wedding custom.--The swallow; the chicken of the Lord.--The seven swallows of the _Edda_.--The swallow blinds the witch.--The birds of the Madonna; San Francesco and the swallows.--It is a mortal sin to kill them.--The swallows as guests; sacred birds.--The swallow beautiful only in spring.--The swans and the swallows sing.--The swallows as babblers.--It is a bad omen to dream of swallows.--Chelidôn, the _pudendum muliebre_.--The sparrow as a phallical bird.--The swallow as a diabolical form.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.

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