Two Little Blackbirds

DESCRIPTION: "Two little blackbirds in the ring, One named Peter, one named Paul. Fly away, Peter, fly away, Paul. Come back, Peter, Come back, Paul." "Under the carpet (?) we must go, Like a jaybird (?) in the air." "Then, Sally, will you marry?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody)
KEYWORDS: bird marriage floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies New Zealand US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 132, "Two Little Dicky Birds" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #596, p. 237, "(There were two blackbirds)"
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 182, "(Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall)" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 113, "Two Little Dicky Birds" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 32, "(Two little birdies sitting on a limb)" (1 text, filed as a rhyme used in hopscotch)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 27, "Two Little Blackbirds" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 81, "(Two little dicke-birds (or blackbirds))" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(Two little dickie birds sittin'on a wall)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #576, "Two little dickie-birds" (1 text)
Roud #16401
RECORDINGS:
Elda Blackwood, "Two Little Blackbirds" (on USWarnerColl01)
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, "Two Little Dickie Birds" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #392, recorded 12/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Two Little Sandy Girls" (form)
NOTES [138 words]: The Warners identify this with the mother goose rhyme, "There were two Blackirds Sitting upon a Hill, The one nam'd Jack, The other nam'd Gill, Fly away Jack, Fly away Gill, Come again Jack, Come again Jill," now more commonly known as "Two little dicky birds." The similarity in lyrics is obvious, but the shift from Jack and Gill to Peter and Paul is peculiar, and most of Elda Blackwood's version is distinct anyway.
Unfortunately, the Warner recording of Blackwood is so noisy as to verge on incomprehensible (note the number of question marks in my transcription). I think we must treat the matter as unsettled. But I've filed the nursery rhyme here, since it appears clearly traditional.
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests that this was used as a finger game, and Alessandra Delia-Lôbo seems to have learned it as such. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Rc2LiBla

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