The Girl and the Birds Lyrics
Cold and without a petticoat, a girl buys new clothes in Darlington, then builds a little church in the woods with every bird in the sky to help.
The Girl and the Birds
When I was a little girl, about seven years old,
I hadn't got a petticoat, to cover me from the cold.
So I went into Darlington, that pretty little town,
And there I bought a petticoat, a cloak, and a gown.
I went into the woods and built me a kirk,
And all the birds of the air, they helped me to work.
The hawk with his long claws pulled down the stone,
The dove with her rough bill brought me them home.
The parrot was the clergyman, the peacock was the clerk,
The bullfinch played the organ, we made merry work.
More verses from the original
When I was a little girl, about seven years old,
I hadn't got a petticoat, to cover me from the cold.
So I went into Darlington, that pretty little town,
And there I bought a petticoat, a cloak, and a gown.
I went into the woods and built me a kirk,
And all the birds of the air, they helped me to work.
The hawk with his long claws pulled down the stone,
The dove with her rough bill brought me them home.
The parrot was the clergyman, the peacock was the clerk,
The bullfinch played the organ, we made merry work.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-girl-and-the-birds/
- Type
- Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Spoken story rhyme
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| The hawk with his long claws pulled down the stone | Curl your fingers into claws and tug. |
| The dove with her rough bill brought me them home | Fly your hand along like a bird carrying a stone. |
| The bullfinch played the organ | Play pretend piano keys. |
What Does The Girl and the Birds Mean?
This is a tall tale in verse. A little girl is cold because she has no petticoat, so she goes to the town of Darlington and buys a petticoat, a cloak and a gown. Then she builds herself a kirk, which is the northern word for church, with the help of the birds. The hawk pulls down the stone, the dove carries it, and when it is finished the parrot is the clergyman, the peacock is the clerk (the person who leads the responses) and the bullfinch plays the organ.
Children enjoy the picture of birds in church jobs, and the last line, "we made merry work", shows the girl and her friends having a lovely time together.
History and Origin
The rhyme is printed in The Real Mother Goose (1916) and, earlier, in James Orchard Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England. Darlington, the town it names, is in county Durham in the north of England, which fits the northern word kirk.
Neither book says who first told it. The idea of birds taking human jobs is an old one in folk rhymes, so it probably started as a spoken story among children in the north and was written down later.
Learning Activities
- Bird jobs: choose a different bird for each job in the church and draw them.
- Build a kirk: use blocks to build a little church and add toy birds.
- Spot the birds: look for hawks, doves and finches in a bird book and compare their size.