Salting A Bird's Tail

Salting a bird's tail is a legendary superstition of Europe and America, and an English language idiom. The superstition is that sprinkling salt on a bird's tail will render the bird temporarily unable to fly, enabling its capture.

The nursery rhyme '' Simple Simon'', which dates to at least the 17th century and possibly earlier, includes the verse

The belief itself is documented to the 16th century, and may be older. Found in European countries such as Sweden, it also crossed the ocean to North America. It is generally told to children, and not commonly believed anymore by adults. In the verse in Simple Simon (above), the point is made even then only a simpleton would believe the legend.

Salting of a bird's tail has been used by analogy as an idiom for immobilization of persons since at least the 19th century, by writers such as Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Walter Lantz, John Phillips, and others. "Ye'll ne'er cast saut on his tail" (English: You'll never cast salt on his tail) is a Scottish proverb of unknown antiquity.

References

{{reflist, refs=
{{cite web , url=http://ingeb.org/songs/simplesi.html , title=Simple Simon , work=Ingeb.com , access-date=June 28, 2020

https://books.google.com/books?id=zLACAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA380

{{cite book , editor-last1=Farmer , editor-first1=John Stephen , editor-last2=Henley , editor-first2=W. E. , title=Slang And Its Analogues , url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Slang_and_Its_Analogues_Past_and_Present/IK0YAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1580.+LYLY,+Euphues+%5BOLIPHANT,+New+Eng.,+i.+607.+Among+the+verbs+are+.+.+.+LAY+SALT+ON+A+BIRD%27S+TAILE%5D&pg=PA97&printsec=frontcover , access-date=June 28, 2020 , year=1903 , volume=VI, publisher=Printed for subscribers only , pages=60, 97

{{cite book , editor-last=Hand , editor-first=Wayland , title=Popular Beliefs And Superstitions From North Carolina , year=1964 , series=The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore , volume=7 , publisher=Duke University Press , isbn=0822302594 , page=390

{{cite book , editor-last=Olenius , editor-first=Elsa , translator-last1=Lundbergh , translator-first1=Holder , title=Great Swedish Fairy Tales , chapter=The Magpie with Salt on her Tail , last=Anna Wahlenberg , first=Anna , year=1973 , publisher=Delacorte Press / Seymour Lawrence , isbn=978-0440030416 , page=136

{{cite web , url=https://www.farmersalmanac.com/salting-a-birds-tail-fact-or-folklore-3135 , title=Salting a Bird's Tail — Fact or Folklore? , author= , date=February 23, 2009 , work=Farmer's Almanac , access-date=June 28, 2020

{{cite web , url=https://naturenet.net/blogs/2006/11/25/laying-salt-on-a-pigeons-tail/ , title=Laying salt on a pigeon's tail , author=Matthew Chatfield , date=November 25, 2006 , work=Naturenet , access-date=June 28, 2020

{{cite book , last1=Alker , first1=Sharon , last2=Davis , first2=Leith , editor-last1=Nelson , editor-first1=Holly Faith , title=Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_ahAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 , access-date=June 28, 2020 , year=2012 , publisher=Ashgate , series=Ashgate Series in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Studies , isbn=978-1409405764 , pages=171–172

{{cite book , last=Hislop , first=Alexander , title=The Proverbs of Scotland , url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26150/26150-h/26150-h.htm , access-date=July 28, 2020 , year=1868 , location=Edinburgh , publisher=Alexander Hislop & Company

{{cite book , last=McCall , first=Douglas L. , title=Film Cartoons: A Guide to 20th Century American Animated Features and Shorts , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALmJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA154 , access-date=July 31, 2020 , year=1998 , publisher=McFarland Publishing , isbn=978-0786405848 , page=154

{{Discogs master, 5890687, No Salt On Her Tail, type=single

Superstitions of Europe
Superstitions of the United States
English-language idioms
Metaphors referring to birds