<Li> The use of "calling birds", rather than "colly birds", on the fourth day . </Li> <Li> The ordering of the final four verses . </Li> <P> The time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music . This irregular meter perhaps reflects the song's folk origin . The introductory lines, such as "On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me", are made up of two 4 / 4 bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one 3 / 4 bar per gift with the exception of "Five gold (en) rings," which receives two 4 / 4 bars, "Two turtle doves" getting a 4 / 4 bar with "And a" on its fourth beat and "Partridge in a pear tree" getting two 4 / 4 bars of music . In most versions, a 4 / 4 bar of music immediately follows "Partridge in a pear tree ." "On the" is found in that bar on the 4th (pickup) beat for the next verse . The successive bars of three for the gifts surrounded by bars of four give the song its hallmark "hurried" quality . </P> <P> The second to fourth verses' melody is different from that of the fifth to twelfth verses . Before the fifth verse (when "five gold (en) rings" is first sung), the melody, using solfege, is "sol re mi fa re" for the fourth to second items, and this same melody is thereafter sung for the twelfth to sixth items . However, the melody for "four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves" changes from this point, differing from the way these lines were sung in the opening four verses . </P>

In the song the twelve days of christmas what is given on the second day