Jawayak-wayak (Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike) had a sore foot because it had a boil on it. Wakwak (Torresian Crow) went and burst the boil and, as he did so, pus flew up and into his eyes so that now Wakwak has white eyes. After that, Jawayak-wayak went and killed a kangaroo; but the other birds carried it […]
Category: Folklore
Bird stories, Black-casqued Hornbill (Ceratogymna atrata)
During the Tembo initiatory rites in the forest, its head is used as a mask. It is also used in the dance called Britnga among the Betende clan during the initiation ceremonies. It is thought that it flies singing Fuo, fuo, fuoo (Who lives there?). Its head is used in the treatment of headaches. One […]
Bird stories, Black Woodpecker, (Dryocopus martius)
This tale is told by the peasantry in Norway. In those days when our Lord and S. Peter wandered upon earth, they came to an old wifes house, who sat baking. Her name was Gertrude, and she had a red mutch on her head. They had walked a long way, and were both hungry, and […]
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus)
The Sertanejos of Brazil make medicine of the liver of this bird, it is extracted and cooked and then reduced to a powder. If this powder is added to the drink or food of an alcoholic, without that person being aware of it, they will supposedly be cured of alcoholism. Ingesting fat from the bones […]
Bird stories, Black Swan (Cygnus arta)
On January 6, 1697, the famous Dutch navigator Willem de Vlaming, visiting the southwestern coast of Australia, sent two boats ashore to explore the present harbor of Perth. “There their crews first saw two and then more black swans, of which they caught four, taking two of them alive to Batavia; and Valentyne, who several […]
Bird stories, the Black Kite (Milvus migrans)
The Betsimisaraka tribe of Madagascar tell a fable explaining why fowls scratch the earth, and why kites scream as they fly: A fowl borrowed a needle from a kite, but the needle being lost, the kite said, I am not contented with your losing my needle, so that is why the fowl scratches the ground, […]
Bird stories, Black Guineafowl (Agelastes niger)
By the Mbuti tribe of the DR Congo, the Black Guineafowl is considered to have such power to cause an illness. Several animals are thought to be sources of evil. The type of disease and its graveness vary, depending on the animals eaten. The most powerful and dangerous ones are avoided for most of the […]
Bird stories, Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle)
The Hudson Bay Eskimos tell their boys and girls when they see the funny little guillemots by the sea-cliffs and ask about them, that once a lot of children were playing near the brink of such a cliff. Their noisy shouts disturbed a band of seal-hunters on the beach below, and one of the men […]
Bird stories, Black Curassow (Crax alector)
In the very beginning of things a trumpeter and a curassow decided upon a matrimonial alliance, but domestic troubles soon broke out, and there was no possibility of a reconciliation; it was thereupon decided to lay the case before the gods who live on the summit of Mount Duida. The wise gods ordered them to […]
Bird stories, Bengal Green Pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera)
The belief of the hill-tribes in north-eastern India, the natives of Furredpore in eastern Bengal say that whenever this bird descends to the water’s edge for a drink it holds a twig in its claws ; it prides itself on living altogether on trees, and in order that it may not be accused of perching […]