"Leather-Winged Bat" is a well-known English folk song about a collection of "birds" (including the bat even though it is not a bird). This version is a combination of several American versions. The version in Lomax's Best Loved American Folk Songs has nine measures in both the verse and the chorus. The song usually includes a bat, a wood pecker, a blue bird, an owl, a turtle dove, a black bird, a wood pecker, a blue jay and possibly other types of critters. Each "bird" has something to say about love and courtship in some sort of rhyming manner. The format of an assembly of birds gathering to discuss romantic and other topics is common in folklore including the folksong "Who Killed Cock Robin?" and Chaucer's "Parlement of Foules". Both the song and the poem date back to the 14th century. I have heard this with or without the nonsense chorus which has a tune nearly identical to the verse. It was recorded by Burl Ives in 1941 on Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger, Pete Seeger, The Duhks, Bill Staines, Spider John Koerner, Peter, Paul and Mary, Tommy Makem and others. It was printed in John and Alan Lomax's Best Loved American Folk Songs.