Coney-catching Coney-catching Coney-catching is Elizabethan slang for theft through trickery. It comes from the word "coney" (sometimes spelled "conny"), meaning a rabbit raised for the table and thus tame. A coney-catcher was a thief or con man. It was a practice in medieval and Renaissance England in which devious people on the street would try to con or cheat vulnerable or gullible pedestrians. The term appears in "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" by William Shakespeare, and in the John Florio translation of Montaigne's essay, "Of the Cannibals." The term was first used in print by
Coney Island (song) on the 1994 Van Morrison tribute album, "". A single was also released with Neeson's version. Dustin the Turkey performed a parody of the song called Bull Island, which told the story of a day out resulting in his arrest at the end. It was featured on his "Not Just a Pretty Face" album as well as "Dustin's Greatest Hits". Coney Island (song) "Coney Island" is a spoken-word song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1989 album, "Avalon Sunset". The narrative is accompanied by lush instrumentation which contrasts with Morrison's thick Ulster brogue. The singer