G'day Ewan,

Here in Australia, I seem to have always known (and therefore probably learned from my ex-Lancashire Grandfather, who was in the Australian Army in both World Wars) a version that ran:

Aunty Mary had a canary,
Up the leg of her drawers.
For 'oors and 'oors, it cursed the Boers
And won the Victoria Cross.

When we we putting together a set of dance tunes for the Bush Music Club (in the 1970s) a Scouser lass, married to a local fiddler, was helping and she half-remembered another variant. This was probably:

Aunty Mary had a canary,
Up the leg of her drawers.
When it came down, it's beak was brown
And it said "I'm the Cock of the North".

but she didn't remember the last line and none of us could remember the name of the the tune we used at a certain point - so it was published as "Aunty Mary" ... which is now a common Australian synonym for Cock of the North.

Incidentally, this song must be slightly related to one (obviously to Comin' Thro' the Rye) that ended up in the first Australian Scout Songbook, which my father worked on.

Sister Mary bought a canary
From the butcher boy
Sister Mary bought a canary
It was her pride and joy
But the bird would never whistle
And she wondered why;
'Till she saw the sparrow's feathers
Comin' thro' the dye

Regards,

Bob Bolton