The Fox And The Bird

"In the foregoing the fox appears true to his character as an unscrupulous, grasping, wily wretch, and in the following he appears as over reached by a bird. Considering the character the fox bears, one is glad when he is paid back in his own coin. The bird in the tale is by some rendered Kestrel Hawk, and by others Hen Harrier. The story was heard in Tiree, in which are no trees on which the bird could sit, and no hawks or foxes to make the story applicable. The lesson which the fable implies is one that is useful everywhere.

A _Deargan-allt, Eun Fionn_, was dosing by a river side, when a Fox came and caught it, and was going to devour it. “Oh don’t, don’t,” said the bird, “and I will lay an egg as big as your head.”

He protested this so loudly, and so solemnly, that the fox loosened his hold till the bird at last flew up into a tree. Here sitting on a branch, and safe from further injury, it said to the fox, “I will not lay an egg as big as your head, for I cannot do it, but I will give you three pieces of advice, and if you will observe them, they will do you more good in the future. One, first, “Never believe an unlikely story from unreliable authority (_Na creid naigheachd mi-choltach fo urrainn mi-dhealbhach_). Secondly, “Never make a great fuss about a small matter (_Na dean dearmail mhòr mu rud beag_), and thirdly”--here the bird seemed to take time, and the fox having his curiosity now excited listened, though it was with firmly clasped teeth and pangs of hunger--“Whatever you get a hold of, take a firm hold of it” (_Rud air an dean thu greim, dean greim gu ro-mhath air_), saying this, the bird flew away, and the fox, thus neatly sold, was left lamenting."