Birds and trees are often the subject of lore and superstition. It makes sense that our predecessors gave human characteristics to trees and birds through myth and story-telling.
Trees are symbols of strength, individuality and expression. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s iconic poem "The Village Blacksmith” opens with: “Under a spreading chestnut-tree, the village smithy stands.” Trees can also represent calm, perennial growth and the connectedness of generations.
“One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch” was The Osmonds' musical interpretationin the seventies. But actually, the ‘rotten apples’ proverb started out centuries earlier saying exactly the opposite; that one bad apple does spoil all the others!
There are lots of idioms about birds, including “putting salt on a bird’s tail,” ostensibly to catch it off guard when it turns around to see what’s going on.
An “albatross around your neck” refers to a burden for your transgressions, which traces back to the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The albatross was believed to be a good omen on the high seas, so as punishment for shooting one, the sailor (the ancient mariner), had to wear it around his neck forevermore.
The phrase “like a duck to water” refers to hatchling waterfowl like swans, mergansers, and eiders. They come out of the egg pretty well-coordinated and within hours head straight to the water, where they can swim immediately and quickly start feeding themselves.
There are so many proverbs that sometimes it can be hard to see “the forest for the trees.” The natural world was the original source of inspiration - the roots and wings - of early cave art, music, poetry, literature, religious beliefs and spirituality.
Once-familiar idioms and superstitions seem quaint, yet some of these, “more than you can shake a stick at,” perpetuate oral traditions of natural history.
How many can you think of?
- The apple never falls far from the tree
- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- Barking up the wrong tree
- Free as a bird
- Go out on a limb
- Like trying to nail jello to a tree
- Knock on wood
- As scarce as hen's teeth
- Money doesn't grow on trees
- Proud as a peacock
- As the crow flies
- Dead as a dodo
- Graceful as a swan
Something Wild is a partnership of the Forest Society, NH Audubon, and NHPR, and is produced by the team at Outside/In.
