The Child Ballad "The Grey Cock" also has the floating verse with the plea to the bird. A version from the late Joe Holmes of Co. Antrim, also sung by Len Graham, Roisin White and Franke Harte, includes the lines:

"Fly up, oh fly up my pretty little cock
"And don't crow before it breaks day
"And your wings they will be made of the very beaten gold and beak of the silvery grey."

This makes less sense than the offer of a golden birdcage, but that's what you get from the old oral tradition!