A Christmas Correction: Even More Birds!

Five golden ring[-necked pheasant]s!

Photo by Yuriy Vertikov on Unsplash of a ring-necked pheasant

Since the publication of my last story, “How Many Gifts Are in ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’?”, I have been dutifully informed that the “five golden rings” which are given on Day 5 may, in fact, not be jewelry, but more birds.

More. Birds.

My true love may have “gave to me” 224 birds, not 184 birds, if my 40 gold rings are actually ring-necked pheasants.

That’s a lot of birds.

On the other hand, the Wikipedia article for the song presents conflicting evidence. Here is the illustration of “five golden rings” from the first known publication of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” from 1780:

Illustration of “five gold rings.” Anonymous. Mirth without Mischief. London: Printed by J. Davenport, George’s Court, for C. Sheppard, no. 8, Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, 1780: pp. 5–16.

In his 1951 book illustratied book A partridge in a pear tree, created for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Ben Shahn “the five golden rings refer to the ringed pheasant” (28)…