The Yule Days – Day 5 – ‘Three starlings’
The king sent his lady on the fifth Yule day,
Three starlings, a goose that was gray,
Three plovers, three partridges, a papingo-aye;
Wha learns my carol and carries it away?
The ‘three starlings’ for day five finds us once again looking at Histoire Naturelle d’Oiseaux Peu Communs, the French translation of George Edwards’ A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (first introduced on Day 2).
The black and white Indian starling (L’Etourneau noir et blanc des Indes) in this illustration is taken from part 4 of the series, published in 1751. David Durand (1680-1763) was the translator of the French edition, a Fellow of the Royal Society living in London at the time.