Since I'm a bird lover, I took an interest in this song and decided to sing it. Before I could do that it needed work. If you are a Catter in good standing, PM me with your e-mail address, and I will send you a PDF of the music and lyrics.
Burns combined two songs here, a song of love and a song of protest. it isn't working. The love is like ice cream and the protest is like hot sauce. They don't work when mixed.
The tune in the DT is a good start but needed modification. It's a pipe tune or fiddle tune and has a big range - an octave plus four notes. It has many snaps, but the short note of the snap often comes on the strong syllable of a word; it's backwards. So I've altered the tune. It is in 4/4 time in the key of E. The first chord is A. I will submit it for posting and it should appear here soon.
Since I can't sing 18th-C Scots dialect, I modernized the words. Here they are. (I kept 'hern' because of the meter.)
1. Now westlin wind the warm rain brings and August's pleasant weather; The moorcock springs on whirring wings, Among the blooming heather; Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain, Delights the weary farmer; The moon shines bright, as I rove at night, To muse upon my Charmer.
2. The partridge loves the fruitful fells; The plover loves the mountains; The wood-cock haunts the lonely dells; The soaring hern the fountains. Through lofty groves the cushat roves, The path o'-man: to shun it; The hazel bush o'erhangs the thrush, the spreading thorn the linnet.
3. Thus ev'ry kind their pleasure find, The savage and the tender; Some social join, and leagues combine; Some solitary wander: But Peggy dear, the ev'ning's clear, Thick flies the skimming swallow; The sky is blue, the fields in view, All fading-green and yellow:
3. Come let us stray our gladsome way, And view the charms o' Nature: The rustling corn, the fruited thorn And ev'ry happy creature. We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk, While the silent moon shines clearly; I'll clasp thy waist, and fondly prest, Swear how I love thee dearly.