The “Golden Plover” is called “The Sheep’s Guide” by the Longdendale shepherds, who say the bird’s note warns the sheep of danger. It is considered bad luck to take the eggs of, or to kill the Robin, Wren, Spotted Fly-catcher, and Swallow, hence the following:-- The Martin and the Swallow Are God’s Mate and Marrow, or, “Are God Almighty’s birds to hollow” (= to _hallow_ or _keep holy_). Eggs of game-fowl are placed in Magpies’ nests to be hatched, in order to make the game-cocks fight better. The calling of a green Woodpecker indicates rain. The name of “Boggarts muck” is given to Owl pellets, the idea being that the small bones therein are those of fairies eaten by boggarts. The Cuckoo was called “The Welsh ambassador” in Cheshire, because this herald of spring was generally heard first on the Welsh border. GAMES Randle Holme gives an entertaining list of children’s games in the Stuart period, nearly all of which are now obsolete. He does not mention one which is more popular in Cheshire than the Southern Counties. This is the game in which a horse chestnut is threaded on a string and struck at with chestnuts similarly threaded. The chestnut is called a “coppity-co”:-- “Coppity-co, My first blow” is the rhyme used. The word is now softened into cobbity-co (so in _Shropshire_) and even into comity-co (_Chester_, 1909). “Cobbity-cuts Put daïn your nuts.” (_South Cheshire._) _Cop_ is old English for _top_ or _head_.[67] Somnolent church-goers in olden times had reason to remember this fact. Paid Richard Pennington for whiping dogs and cobing sleeping folke £0 10 0 (_Bunbury Church Accounts._) [67] So at Chester, the top of the river bank is called “The Cop,” and a “cop-hedge” is, in Cheshire, a bank with a hedge on top of it. A similar official at Tarvin was familiarly known as “The Cobber,” and at Tarporley as “The Awakener.”[68] [68] The following anecdote, which is vouched for, is too good to omit:--At a certain Cheshire church, where the farmers slumbered peacefully during the afternoon sermon, the incumbent was surprised on a certain Sunday to see the farmers, one after another, waking up suddenly and vigorously rubbing their faces. At last, looking up in a gallery to the left of the pulpit, he saw a boy with a pea-shooter, and at once discerned the cause of the commotion. He shook his fist at the lad, but to no effect, and at last cried out, “Young man, desist!” but the boy, bent on his work, replied, “Never thee mind! get along with thy sermon; I’ll keep the beggars awaken for thee!” Another curious game is “Dot.” Children move in a ring round one representing “Dot,” and sing:-- “Dun yo’ wot, ’oo were Dot? He were not a bad lot; Whereabouts was his cot, Oi’n furgotten to jot.” (_North Cheshire and Malpas._)