Fetched home by a strange hen

Earlier today, I ended my post "Decorations from a Tree of Acorns" with two lines from "The Allansford Pursuit" by Robert Graves, for no other reason than that they had popped into my head, despite the fact that I last read that poem in 2001.

Cunning and art he did not lack

But aye her whistle would fetch him back.

This led me to look up the poem and reread it. One stanza caught my attention:

Yet I shall go into a bee

With a mickle horror and dread of thee

And flit to hive in the Devil’s name

Ere that I be fetchèd hame.

-- Bee, take heed of a swallow hen

Will harry thee close, both butt and ben,

For here come I in Our Lady’s Name

All but for to fetch thee hame.

The phrase swallow hen just seemed strange to me. I know hen can refer to any adult female bird, but hen swallow seems more natural -- just as you would say dog fox or bull elephant, with the animal's actual species as the syntactic head.

Later in the day, I put on some music, and "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash came on. It also includes an odd compound with hen, and in the context of fetching someone home.

Then the father hen will call his chickens home