12 days of Christmas - Colly or calling?

I heard a similar one recited recently (very well too!) but couldn't find that exact one.
It was very similar though Pamela

Jalima, the monologue is fabulous.

Mirth without
Mischief, 1780:
My true love sent to me
Colly birds

Halliwell, 1842:
My mother sent to me
Canary birds

as Flexiblefriend said, it has changed over the years:
colly, canary, collie, colour'd, colley, curley, calling, collie.

You takes your pick!

(But cauli is a flower)

We've always said Calling!

gillybob if someone presented me with four caulis on the fourth day of Christmas I would tell them to go and make their own cauliflower cheese!

Colly

I've always sung calling birds

And Cauli is a vegetable!

Don't think you are right either as I have explained in my other comments. Collie is a dog - BIG COL

I agree with you Emma. I have just explained it to someone else. Calling birds were birds like Doves and they were called that because of their call which is a sort of cooing. A Collie is a dog. Its not just what I was brought up with either. its what I know - BIG COL

Jalima I just love it, thank you for the link.

I was always brought up with the fact that the birds were calling birds (EG: Their call which is a sort of coo) like doves or pigeons. A collie is a dog. I suppose I can understand people making the mistake. its as they hear it, but I think you will find it is calling birds - BIG COL

And another link to the 12 Days of Christmas:

monologues.co.uk/Parodies/Twelve_Days_Correspondence.htm

Colly is the original word, although I sang 'calling' for years but now I sing colly.

amornithhistory.org/2017/12/25/four-calling-birds/

I have heard both ( but always wondered about a bird made from cauli ) I have always said “calling” .

Interesting FF I never knew that. Thanks for sharing.

Colly.

Calling.

Apparently the words were changed in 1909 by the English composer named Frederic Austin; in 1909, he set the melody and lyrics (including changing "colly" to "calling") and added as his own flourish the drawn-out cadence of "five go-old rings."
Colly refered to blackbirds as in black as coal I was taught calling birds.

Colly is, or was, a regional word for black. The colly birds are blackbirds. Those who didn’t understand the word adapted it to calling birds, which made more sense to them.

Well this one can run and run ???????

Colly surely? It's from the "collared birds" i.e collared doves.

Calling.

Calling

Calling.