Salting a bird's tail

Salting a bird's tail is a legendary superstition of Europe and America, and an English language idiom.

The nursery rhyme "Simple Simon", which dates to at least the 17th century and possibly earlier, includes the verse He went to catch a dicky bird,And thought he could not fail,Because he had a little salt,To put upon its tail.

[3] Found in European countries such as Sweden,[4] it also crossed the ocean to North America.

In "Simple Simon", the point is made even then only a simpleton would believe the legend.

Salting of a bird's tail has been used by analogy as an idiom for immobilizing someone since at least the 19th century, by writers such as Walter Scott,[3] Robert Burns,[2] Walter Lantz,[8] and John Phillips with his song “No Salt On Her Tail”, performed by The Mamas & the Papas.