Bluebird

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a [blue]bird through my window, Oh, Johnny, I'm tired! [or "Hey, diddle, hi dum, day"] ... Take a little dancer and hop through the garden ... Take a little partner, and pat him on the shoulder"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 39-40=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 228, "Down in Jay Bird Town" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, "Little Bird, Go Through My Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 97, "Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #51. "Blue-birds and Yellow-Birds" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 72, "Bluebird"; p. 101, "Fly Little Bluebird" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 7, "Bluebird, Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #176, "Here comes a little bird through the window"; #537, Take a little bird and hop in the corner" (2 texts, both possibly this but too short to properly identify)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E. Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan"," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #4 pp. 94-95, "Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #49 p. 43 ("Here comes a bluebird through my window") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), p. 78, "The Blue Bird" (1 text)
Roud #7700
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Little Bird, Little Bird " (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #690, recorded 10/01/2023)
Stanley Hicks, "Here Goes a Bluebird" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns2)
NOTES [63 words]: This seems to have become relatively well-known from Elizabeth Mitchell on Folkways which begins
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window.
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window.
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window
And find molasses candy.
(It may be repeated with other birds instead of "little bird.") Did this arise organically? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OpGa097

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