Robbie Burns, birds and love
Last week it was the 250th anniversary of Robbie Burns, the great Scottish poet and radical. One of his many songs, the lovely 'Now Westlin Winds', was recorded by Dick Gaughan in 1978. Describing how he goes out in the woods one night thinking of Peggy, his 'charmer', Burns shows a keen understanding of bird habitats:
The partridge loves the fruitful fells
The plover loves the mountains
The woodcock haunts the lonely dells
The soaring hern the fountains
Through lofty groves the cushat roves
The path of man to shun it
The hazel bush o'erhangs the thrush
The spreading thorn the linnet
He also makes it clear he doesn't think much of hunting:
Avaunt away! the cruel sway
Tyrannic man's dominion
The sportsman's joy, the murdering cry
The fluttering gory pinion
But what is a 'cushat' in the first quote above? Wikipedia has a Scottish dialect page, which says this: 'The cushat or cushie-doo (Columba palumbus) is a kind o doo. The cushat can be identifee'd bi its muckle bouk (38–43 cm), an the white on its hause an wing. It is itherwice a dreich gray bird, wi a pinkie breest.' The picture tells it all (it's a wood pigeon). Dick Gaughan's version is available on iTunes. There's also this version, by Damian Nixon, on YouTube, which you might find a bit easier to understand...
The lyrics are available here
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