The note in Randolph explains a little more. Thanks, Joe, for opening the name up.

From Randolph- "Newell (Games and Songs, 1903) gave several versions of this "Hawks and Chickens" game from different parts of the country." Versions are in Talley (Negro Folk Rhymes, 1922), Scarborough (On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs, 1925), and Cox (Southern Folklore Quarterly, 1942).

The verse given by Kytrad above (black-eyed chickens) is identical with the verse given by Randolph from a Miss Wilbur, Pineville, MO, 1920. The game is similar, but the first one caught becomes the next witch. One version was collected by Randolph in 1913; the singer claimed to have learned it in "the 80's."

"Hawk and Chickens," description of the childrens' game, collected in Florida in 1939, is heard on American Memory.