A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The cave contains hundreds of small birds organized into families, each with a hand-sized hut and a finely woven reed fence. They cultivate tiny maize, sugarcane, nut-sized pumpkins and minute nuts. The mothers go to the fields while their children sweep, prepare shells for cooking and fetch water in little leaves. This domestic miniature landscape, rather than a modern bird species label, characterizes the published nursery tale.
A large black bird with a sharp beak and long claws demands the cave for itself. It kills a young defender, injures several others and escapes the returning mothers; the next day it destroys their crops. As the families decide to abandon the cave, an adviser no bigger than a fingernail encourages one little hen to attack its eyes. She accepts despite everyone doubting her strength. When the marauder returns, she blinds it and the whole family company kills it, ending the threat.
The helpers, parents, injured children and attacker are retained within one household narrative. The story supplies courage, cooperative defence and scaled-down material life, without dividing its unnamed minor birds into unsupported individual biographies. Its chapter label is Zulu nursery tale; the edition gives no named storyteller for it.
Origins & earliest records
Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged this English children’s retelling. Their preface says most stories came from Swazi contributors, others from Zulu and nearby communities, but gives no individual narrator for this episode. Its colonial generalizations are not adopted as community self-description.
Records & interpretation
Complete III. The Story of the Little Birds who lived in a Cave, printed pp. 28–31, read through the ending; collection title page, preface and chapter community label checked.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
III. The Story of the Little Birds who lived in a Cave, pp. 28–31; English literary arrangement for children, unnamed episode contributor.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Primary source witness
Sarah F. Bourhill (Mrs. E. J. Bourhill) and Beatrice L. Drake (Mrs. J. B. Drake), Fairy Tales from South Africa, London: Macmillan, 1908, selected original title page and complete headed tales in PG75833. Introduction pp.v–xi says the tales are arranged for children from principally Swazi, also Zulu and border-region sources; individual contributors are not named for these episodes. Its colonial generalisations are attributed historical framing, not present ethnographic fact.
- The birds have parents, offspring, tiny huts, cultivated food and cooking vessels. A larger intruder tries to claim their cave, kills one youngster and injures others; he later destroys their crops. The tale is explicitly headed a Zulu nursery tale rather than an observed natural bird society.
III The Story of the Little Birds who Lived in a Cave, pp.28–30; domestic community and attack
- A minute newcomer encourages a hen to blind the intruder. After she does so, the parents kill him together, and the households remain in peace. The first dead youngster is not shown restored, and the helping tiny bird is not given a name or ancestry.
No individual oral contributor or separate original-language manuscript inspected. Historical framing and translations are not universal current community consensus. Original facsimile not visually inspected in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — III. The Story of the Little Birds who lived in a CaveResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.