Docta Bud (Doctor Bird)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The cunning doctor bird is hard to kill: you beat him and he gets up; you shoot him and he flies away; when he wants a place to lie down he builds a nest on a low branch.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: magic nonballad bird
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 45-46, "Docta Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 3-4, "Docta Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Docta Bud" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [98 words]: According to the Jamaica Information Service site the doctor bird is the swallow tail humming bird (Trochilus Polytmus), which lives only in Jamaica. It may be called "Doctor Bird" because "the erect black crest and tails resemble the top hat and long coat tails the doctors used to wear in the old days.... According to Frederick Cassidy ... The Aracks spread the belief that the bird had magical powers. They called it the 'God bird,' believing it was the reincarnation of dead souls" (https://jis.gov.jm/information/symbols/jamaican-national-bird-the-doctor-bird/, accessed 7/15/2023). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: JaMu045

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