Bird's Courting Song, The (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)

DESCRIPTION: Various birds talk about their attempts at courting, and the effects of their successes and failures. Example: "Said the hawk to the crow one day, Why do you in mourning stay, I was once in love and I didn't prove fact, And ever since I wear the black."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1733 (broadside, Bodleian Harding Douce Ballads 2(243b)); other broadsides appear to date back to the seventeenth century "Woody Querristers" in the Roxburge collection
KEYWORDS: bird courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Randolph 275, "The Crow Song" (5 texts, 1 tune, but only the first three texts are this piece, with the "B" and "C" texts mixing with "The Crow Song (I)")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 152, "Birds Courting" (3 texts plus an excerpt; the "D" text may be mixed); also 156, "Said the Blackbird to the Crow" (the "D" text mixes this with "The Crow Song (I)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 152, "Birds Courting" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 156, "Said the Blackbird to the Crow" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida #111, "The Woodpecker Song" (1 text); #112, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #20, pp. 170-171, "Pourquoi" (1 text, tune, probably amplified as it carefully has birds of all colors including some rarely encountered in nature)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 225, "Sapsucker" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 193, (no title) (1 fragment, probably this)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 215, "The Bird Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but the "B" fragment is "The Crow Song (I)"; the "A" text is "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" but with some "Crow Song" lyrics)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #47, "Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 73, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 105-106, "The Bird Song"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 295, "The Hawk and the Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 4, "Leatherwing Bat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 48-53, "Birds' Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 573-574, "Bird's Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 90-91, "Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 72-73, "Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 397, "Leatherwing Bat" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 44, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 77, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 18, "The Bird Song" (1 text 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN968, "Give ear you lads and lasses all" (?); ZN2037, "Oh says the Cuckoo, loud and stout"; ZN2038, "Oh says the Cuckoo loud and stout"
DT, LEATRBAT* LEATHBA2*
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 49-51, "The Hawk and the Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #747 and 18169
RECORDINGS:
Virgil Sandage, "The Birds' Song" (on FineTimes)
Pete Seeger, "Leatherwing Bat" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02) (on PeteSeeger32)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(243b), "The Woody Queresters" or "The Birds Harmony" ("Oh! says the cuckoo, loud and stout")[some words illegible], T. Norris (London), 1711-1732; also Douce Ballads 1(17b), "The Birds Lamentation"; Douce Ballads 3(110a), Douce Ballads 3(108a), "The Woody Choristers" or "The Birds Harmony" in two parts
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (tune)
cf. "The Crow Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Old Man at the Mill" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hoot Says the Owl" (lyrics)
cf. "The Bird-Catcher's Delight" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(17b))
NOTES [67 words]: Cox's "Pourquoi" title is, in effect, the French term for "Just So Story"; Cox applied it because the piece he collected (in Missouri, though from an informant born in Kentucky) had no title.
Roud splits off Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore's "Sapsucker" as #18169, but the first verse at least belongs here, and the rest is fairly nonsensical; I think it should be considered with this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: K295

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