Robins, martins and magpies

A Suffolk clergyman sent Chambers the local beliefs about animals. No boy would take a robin’s eggs for fear of broken legs, it was unlucky to kill a robin, and a robin dying in your hand left it shaking for life. Martins building on a house were lucky because they never came where there was strife, counting lambs too early made them fail, and killing a harvestman spider brought a bad harvest. Magpies went by the rhyme one for sorrow, two for mirth, three a wedding, four a death.