ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

On the Fourth Day of Christmas Is the Gift a Calling Bird or Collie Bird?

Updated on December 14, 2017
Chuck profile image

Chuck enjoys celebrating holidays with his family. This has led to an interest in researching & writing about holidays & their traditions.

Words Change with Time and Place

December 26, 2010

New Hubber, Mary Jane Danley, saw my Hub On the First Day of Christmas and sent me a request asking if the gift on the Fourth Day of Christmas was originally four colley (or collie) birds or four calling birds.

In my Hub On the Fourth Day of Christmas, I explained that in the original song as sung in England during the Middle Ages and Tudor era had four collie (or colley) birds as the gift on the fourth day of Christmas.

Now, centuries later, the song as is commonly sung in the United States and other former English colonies, such as Australia, Canada, etc., the four birds are frequently written and sung as calling birds.

While calling birds roll off the tongue easily and sound good to the ear, there is no such creature as a calling bird. Do a search on the web using the phrase calling bird or calling birds and most results will explain that this is simply a modern corruption of the old English phrase collie bird.

The Carol is Really About Food and Parties

Collie is a term derived from the word colliery which is an old English word for a coal mine. Collie or colly meant black like coal. So the collie birds in the song referred to blackbirds which are common in England.

Not only common but, in the Middle Ages the terms collie and blackbird were frequently applied to any type of bird that was black including, as one commenter on my On the Fourth Day of Christmas Hub stated, starlings.

During the Middle Ages and Tudor times, starlings were among various types of wild local birds that were kept in cages as pets. Various types of blackbirds were also eaten as food along with other game birds. So the lover’s gift in this case was one of food or a pet.

While men today will take their true love out to dinner at a fine restaurant they generally don’t give the woman they are courting a frozen chicken or turkey (or, worse yet, live ones) as gifts, we must remember that in the days when this song originated restaurants were rough taverns frequented mostly by men and food had to be either hunted, obtained from farms or farmers on market days.

The Five Golden Rings on The Fifth Day Also Refer to Birds

Over the centuries customs and words change. The word collie did not follow English settlers to the colonies and in our era of science and more precise classification different species of birds have unique names.

And, not only didn’t the word collie follow the English to the colonies, it has also fallen into disuse in England and is no longer a common word there let along a generic name for blackbirds.

Given the changing customs and changing word meanings over the centuries it is not surprising that our interpretation of the song has also changed.

Just as the four collie birds in the fourth stanza of the song have morphed into the more understandable, but non-existent, four calling birds, in newer English speaking nations, the five golden rings in the fifth stanza have also changed.

While the fifth day’s gift remains five golden rings, the image in modern peoples minds and in most illustrations accompanying the lyrics is of five gold rings for one’s fingers. However, the five rings referred to five ring necked pheasants. Again, food was not as plentiful and as easily available as it is today so gifts of food were more common.

The Important Thing is that We Can Still Enjoy the Carol

In the end, it can be interesting to know the history and meanings of words of old Christmas carols but the important thing is the joy and pleasure we get from signing or listening to the carols.

And if the words and images in the song change with time that simply means that there is a timeless quality to the carol and that is good.

Words & Their Meanings Changed as the English Language Expanded Around the World

A
England:
England, United Kingdom

get directions

England where the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" originated during the Middle Ages.

B
North America:
North America

get directions

North America(United States & Canada)which was colonized and once ruled by Great Britain and where English language and culture continue.

C
Australia:
Australia

get directions

Australia, another land colonized by the English and where English language and culture continue.

D
New Zealand:
New Zealand

get directions

Another of the many places in the world where English language and culture predominate.

© 2010 Chuck Nugent

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)