226 LANGUAGES AND WORDS 



opposed to Scottish or Irish only) naturalist who mentions 

 it as a bird of this country, says that it was called " in the 

 old law books Caperkally." Your evidence contradicts 

 this, but in some of the subsequent Acts it may have been 

 so termed, for I have generally found Pennant pretty 

 accurate. Still he gives no particular authority and it 

 may be that he got this information verbally, in which 

 case he is certainly not far wrong, for I suppose he in- 

 tended the second " a " to be sounded broad, and I am 

 told that the nearest approach to the sound of the Gaelic 

 when written in English is ' ' Caper-coilye ' ' or perhaps 

 ' Caper-choylye." It would be a great pleasure to me 

 to prove Pennant absolutely right by rinding a ' ' law- 

 book ' in which the name was spelt ' Caperkally ' 

 or " Capercally ' -which last I am pretty sure Wolley 

 used to maintain he had satisfied himself was correct. 



I wish Mr. Small wrote more distinctly, I can't be 

 sure whether he means his new derivation to be " Cabbar ' : 

 (an old bird) and " Coille," the first word being written 

 to look more like " Cakkar." 



I forgot to answer the question in your former letter. 

 I have duly received your paper on " Birds of Suther- 

 land and Gulls in the Forth," but no duplicate copy of 

 " Transylvania." * 



The word written by Mr. Small was correctly, 

 ' Cabher," signifying an old man, or old bird. 



Soon after this Mr. Harvie-Brown began to collect 

 material for his book " The Capercaillie in Scotland ' 

 (published in 1879), and Newton gave him much help in 

 looking for early references to the bird. 



I cannot find a copy of Lindsay's (Pittscottie) History 

 in our library, but I have found that we possess 2 editions 

 of the Scots Acts. In the older (printed in 1566) there 

 is one of Q. Mary, 1551. " Of the prices of wylde and 

 tame meitis. Ca. Xj," which are to be :- 



" Gran ' 5/-, " Swan ' 5/-, " Wylde geese of the 



* Letter to J. A. Harvie-Brown, February 17, 1876. 



