Redbird and Jaybird

DESCRIPTION: "The jaybird sat on the redbird's nest. The redbird sat and mourned." Verses about the birds and their lives, with additional (floating?) material about partridges pulling a plow, a man riding a goose across a creek, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 154, "Redbird and Jaybird" (2 texts; "A" appears to be mixed and "B" is a fragment)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Odds and Ends of North American Folklore on Birds," Volume 5, Number 3 (Fall 1955), p. 180-181, "(Ole Massa Buzzard, 'yo needn't fly so high)" (9 stanzas, probably from multiple sources, but some of the stanzas appear similar to this)
NOTES [43 words]: Although the older of Brown's two sources lists the redbird as sitting on the jaybird's nest, the newer version, in which the jaybird moves in on the cardinal, is almost certainly correct. Jays are related to crows, and will make off with other birds' eggs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Br3154

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