A Jackdaw and Pigeons

Character Index | Proverb Index

A Jackdaw and Pigeons

He that trims between two interests, loses himself with both, but is true to neither.

Townsend version

A jackdaw, seeing some Doves in a cote abundantly provided with food, painted himself white and joined them in order to share their plentiful maintenance. The Doves, as long as he was silent, supposed him to be one of themselves and admitted him to their cote. But when one day he forgot himself and began to chatter, they discovered his true character and drove him forth, pecking him with their beaks. Failing to obtain food among the Doves, he returned to the Jackdaws. They too, not recognizing him on account of his color. expelled him from living with them. So desiring two ends, he obtained neither.

L'Estrange version

A daw took particular notice of the pigeons in such a certain dove-house, that they were very well fed, and provided for: so he went and painted himself of a dove colour, and took his commons with the pigeons. So long as he kept his own counsel, he pass'd for a bird of the same feather; but it was his hap once at unawares, to cry [Kaw,] upon which discovery, they beat him out of the house, and when he came to his old companions again, they'd have none of him neither; so that he lost himself both ways by this disguise.

Moral

He that trims betwizt two interests, loses himself with both, when he comes to be detected, for being true to neither.

[Daw = Jackdaw; a European crow]
[Trimmer = A person who arranges things in a manner necessary for them to work.]
[Trimming = The act of arranging things in a manner necessary for them to work.]

Character Index | Proverb Index

Diverse Info | Travels | Recipies | Aesop's Fables | Rosary