Among country people in some parts of the kingdom it was thought very unlucky to have no money in your pocket when you heard the cuckoo for the first time in the season. Chambers set it beside the other cuckoo beliefs of his day, such as the Shropshire cuckoo ale, as a remnant of the bird’s old place in popular superstition. It comes in his notes for 20 April, after the rhyme of the cuckoo’s season.
Money in your pocket for the cuckoo
Printed under 20 April
Lore and belief
it is considered to be very unlucky to have no money in your pocket when you hear the cuckoo's note for the first time
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 531. Read the original
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