Jim, You posted:

...in the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', the gift given on the fourth day is four *calling* birds. I have never been able to determine exactly what kind of birds are or once were known as calling birds. Could the word 'calling' originally have been 'collied', meaning blackened by coal soot, perhaps in thoroughly polluted 19th Century London?

Could the "calling birds" simply be singing birds (birds 'calling out' in song)? - Hal Lane ######################## # hallane@earthlink.net ########################