A bird in the hand

Posted by TheFallen on August 26, 2002

In Reply to: A bird in the hand posted by ESC on August 26, 2002

: : Hi,
: : My name is Anita. I am a ten year old girl studying in grade 5. Please help me by giving the meaning of the proverb "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush".

: A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush- "It's better to possess something real right now than to count on finding something better in the future. The proverb is similar to the thirteenth century Latin: Plus valet in manibus avis unica quam dupla silvis (A bird in the hands is worth more than two in the woods.) It has been traced back to the 'Life of St. Katharine' (c. 1450) by J. Capgrave." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

A small addition - this proverb probably refers to the world of hunting, in that it effectively states that, if you've already shot and picked up a pheasant (for example), at least you know you're going to eat that night - and that's better than not having shot anything yet, no matter how many more pheasants you may see, because you might miss them all, and end up going hungry.