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Hush, little baby, now don't say a word,
Daddy's going to buy you a mocking bird,
And if that mockingbird don't sing
Daddy's going to buy you a diamond ring,
And if that diamond ring gets lost
Daddy's going to buy you a rockin'-horse,
And if that rockin'-horse don't rock
Daddy's going to buy you a brand-new frock.
This variant was collected in 1959 from Mrs. Frank Tompkins of Doyles, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, p.15, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that collecting Newfoundland songs with nightingales in them is quite commonplace, but mocking birds are another matter. It suggests that some quicker (or probably electronic) method had supplanted the tried and true process of traditional transmission. However, Mrs. Tompkins assured Peacock that she had never heard it on the radio. Cecil Sharpe noted it in the Southern Appalachians as The Mocking Bird.
