Little Robin Redbreast

‘Little Robin Redbreast’ is an English language nursery rhyme, chiefly notable as evidence of the way traditional rhymes are changed and edited.

It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20612.

Common modern versions include: Little Robin Redbreast Sat upon a rail; Niddle noddle went his head, Wiggle waggle went his tail.

and: The earliest versions of this rhyme reveal a more basic humour.

The earliest recorded is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744), which has the lyric: By the late eighteenth century the last line was being rendered 'And wag went his tail,' and other variations were used in nineteenth-century children's books, in one of the clearest cases of bowdlerisation in nursery rhymes.