I HAD to smile at Jimmie Macgregor’s self-effacing contribution on our continued preoccupation with the topic of sparrows on the window ledge (Letters, November 20). I am instantly reminded of a verse which I learned, as a very wee boy, from my broad Scots-speaking grandpa:
“Wee cheuckie birdie trololo, laid an egg oan the windie sole,
The windie sole began tae crack an’ wee cheuckie birdie roared an’ grat”
I was much more amused later on in life, with a mature schoolboy edition which sadly ended with:
“An’ so ah pulled the windae doon an’ crushed its ******g heid”
I don’t believe that even the great Duncan Macrae could have brought credence to any of these ancient rhymes, not even Jimmie’s.
Ian Cooper,
Flat 3/3, 1 Jackson Place, Glasgow.
FOLLOWING up on Jimmie Macgregor’s humble “speugie” I add the short poems of American rhymester Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971), which include the canary, capercaillie, cuckoo, duck, North American grackle, ostrich, platypus, toucan and turkey.
“The ostrich roams the great Sahara, its mouth is wide, its beak is narra.
It has such long and lofty legs, I’m glad it sits to lay its eggs.”
Or children’s favourite by another American humourist, Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879 -1972):
“A wonderful bird is the pelican, Its bill can hold more than its belly can.
He can hold in his beak, enough food for a week, But I’m darned if I know how the hellican.”
R Russell Smith,
96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.
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