The most baffling question raised by “The Twelve Days of Christmas” may be who wants their true love to give them 23 birds, but there are others.
Like what the heck is a calling bird? And what, precisely, makes a French hen French?
Pamela Rasmussen can answer those last two.
She’s one of the world’s most renowned ornithologists, having both discovered more new bird species than almost anyone living and unearthed what is arguably the most egregious case of fraud in the birding world, the thefts and falsifications of the late British ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen.
Which is why one of Rasmussen’s Michigan State University colleagues, on the public relations side, suggested some years ago that she might try to identify all of the birds in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
“I’m not generally researching bird names in old Christmas carols,” she said, and given the age of the carol, first printed in England in 1780, there were multiple versions to take into account.
But she came to some conclusions, not certainties exactly, but educated guesses based on the context of 18th century England and the clues in the song itself.
So if you want to ply your true love with lots of birds this Christmas (editor’s note: don’t), here’s the list:
Partridge in a pear tree
A red-legged partridge
This was probably the red-legged partridge, an ornately plumed, red-billed bird that was introduced to England in the 1770s, just before the song was published.
Someone argued to Rasmussen years ago that the partridge in a pear tree might have been a gray partridge, which was present in England earlier. She was unconvinced.
“Gray partridges are not really known to perch in trees like red legged partridge,” she said
Two turtle doves
Turtle doves.
This one is clear, Rasmussen said. They would have been European turtle doves, which were common in England at the time but less common now because of loss of habitat and hunting along their migration routes. The United Kingdom’s most recent turtle dove survey, released in June, found that their numbers had declined 98 percent since the 1970s. Their name comes from their turrturrr-ing call and not from any turtle-like qualities.
Three French hens
Backyard flock of chickens. (File photo)
These are likely…chickens. That’s it. No particular breed. Just “a foreign type” of common barnyard chicken, according to Rasmussen’s original list.
For what it’s worth, after the fall of the Roman Empire, selective chicken breeding in Europe didn’t really take off again until the 1700s.
Four calling birds
A Eurasian blackbird.
This is where a look back at the history of the lyrics pays dividends, because early versions of the song don’t talk about “calling birds” at all but about “colly birds.” The word “colly” comes from the Old English word for coal. It means “black.” Versions of the song would talk about “coloured” and “curley” birds, and about “collie dogs” for that matter, before “calling birds” ever appeared.
Rasmussen believes the song was most likely referring to Eurasian blackbirds, “but it doesn’t have to be,” she said. “It could be any of three species of crow. It could be the starling. It’s anybody’s guess.”
Six geese a-laying
A Greylag goose at Webster Pond, Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday July 1, 2021. Scott Schild | [email protected]
The clue to the identity of the goose species in the song is what they’re doing: laying eggs. That points to the graylag goose, Rasmussen said, the largest wild goose native to the U.K. and a species that breeds there.
“There are other geese in Britain during the winter, but they’re not laying eggs there,” she said.
Some sources argue that “The Twelve Days of Christmas” has its roots in France, but the greylag goose would fit there, too, Rasmussen said.
Seven swans a-swimming
A mute swan paddles alone in a pond at Weeks Bay.bn
Rasmussen believes the swans a-swimming were mute swans, a species that was kept in semi-domesticity “and considered Crown property,” which prevented them from being hunted to extinction. Even still, one of the lesser-used and lesser-known titles of British monarchs is Seigneur of the Swans.
Mute swans aren’t mute, just quieter than other swans. They’re still plentiful in Britain and have arrived in the U.S. as an invasive species.
Are they all birds?
A red billed blue magpie sits on a branch.David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
In her research, Rasmussen came across a theory that every gift in the song is, in fact, a sort of bird, that the five gold rings are ring-necked pheasants and the maids a-milking are magpies, which are black with white on their bellies and wings, and so on.
She hasn’t gone down that particular rabbit hole.
“I still think that probably the original interpretations are as likely as any of the others,” she said.
