---
title: "The Bonie Moor-Hen"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1787"
location: "Edinburgh"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/the-bonie-moor-hen/"
---

# The Bonie Moor-Hen

## Poem
The heather was blooming, the meadows were mawn,  
Our lads gaed a-hunting ae day at the dawn,  
O’er moors and o’er mosses and mony a glen,  
At length they discover’d a bonie moor-hen.

*Chorus*  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men,  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men;  
Take some on the wing, and some as they spring,  
But cannily steal on a bonie moor-hen.

Sweet—brushing the dew from the brown heather bells  
Her colours betray’d her on yon mossy fells;  
Her plumage outlustr’d the pride o’ the spring  
And O! as she wanton’d sae gay on the wing.

*Chorus*  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men,  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men;  
Take some on the wing, and some as they spring,  
But cannily steal on a bonie moor-hen.

Auld Phoebus himself, as he peep’d o’er the hill,  
In spite at her plumage he tried his skill;  
He levell’d his rays where she bask’d on the brae—  
His rays were outshone, and but mark’d where she lay.

*Chorus*  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men,  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men;  
Take some on the wing, and some as they spring,  
But cannily steal on a bonie moor-hen.

They hunted the valley, they hunted the hill,  
The best of our lads wi’ the best o’ their skill;  
But still as the fairest she sat in their sight,  
Then, whirr! she was over, a mile at a flight.

*Chorus*  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men,  
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men;  
Take some on the wing, and some as they spring,  
But cannily steal on a bonie moor-hen.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/the-bonie-moor-hen/