Description

From a description of the game at ALL ABOUT GAMES

Following most of the words of the Cock Robin nursery rhyme the card game has the players answer the questions found within the rhyme. The first one being, “Who killed Cock Robin?” And the last one being, “Who will sing the psalm?”
The old card game offers a twist at the ending and differs from the nursery rhyme. The players of the game are told Cock Robin is alive and well and they have all been telling a story! This is the part of the game which truly has the players interacting with each other and reveals the fun age of the times.
The directions for the game of Cock Robin begin with choosing a person to be the dealer. After having all the cards dealt out to theplayers, the dealer is then the person who asks the questions. For example, the dealer reads the first question of “Who killed Cock Robin?” The correct animal card to specifically answer is the Sparrow card. It reads, “I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow. I killed Cock Robin.” If the player has the ‘Sparrow’ card, he lays his card down on the table in front of him and the dealer asks the next question to the next player (Who saw him die?).
If the player does not have the sparrow card in his hand, he picks a card from the player to his left and reads a generic answer card (often humorous) before laying that card on the table in a separate pile. The dealer proceeds to ask the next player the same question until the correct answer card is found and played. The player who answers the question will take any of the generic cards played to the question and place them (if there are any) in his hand

Once all the questions have been read and answered the exciting part of the game begins! The dealer reads the following script,
“Oh, Mr. Bullfinch, Oh, Mr. Popinjay
Never believe what these little birds say-
Bad little birds—telling us a story-
Cock Robin is alive in all his glory!”
The dealer continues to read the next line of,
“Cock Robin is all alive—Mr. Sparrow, pay a fine for that story now, about your bow and arrow.”

The last script read reveals the winner of the game of Cock Robin. It reads, “And now Mr. Thrush, Come out of your bush, and sing us a song. Or give us a riddle; and we’ll grant you the fame of winning the game.”