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A nice one from Charybdis - many thanks - but the final step eludes me. The third sentence of the Preamble is particularly elusive.

Assuming you know the lullaby, and have performed the instruction, what is the next line in the song? Find the Chambers-approved abbreviation for that item in an appropriate shape.

Trouble is that I can’t get beyond the book/film. I see no lullabyage there. Mind you, it’s been several decades since lullabies were a part of my life.

Google the bits, you idiot!

That's where I am but can't find the obvious one, ie s*******.

In the lullaby, what happens if the thematic bird won't sing?

Many thanks to Charybdis (and possibly also Monteverdi). Some fairly gentle clues and the first part of the endgame raised a smile. However, I couldn’t initially find what I thought I was looking for in the grid. Went out to an absolutely cracking performance of the Monteverdi Vespers by I Fagiolini as part of the Lammermuir Festival and, in the middle of the Magnificat, it struck me that if I was looking for a “dumpty dum” that might also be phrased as a “dum of dumpties”.Got back home and lo! It was so.

perfect Jack...that helped me to finish!! Thank you!

Grid almost full but not got all 6 extra letters. I can see a creature and what it eats in a neat pattern in 8 contiguous cells. But that is from a proverb not a lullaby or literature.

I will press on.

Grunger, you're on the wrong track. The 6 letters are vital really. The 'creature' features twice in the grid ...