NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 281 



assigned the name as in honour of a tutelar saint. P-t Barr, which 

 has been contradicted, and again reasserted since that time, by- 

 different writers, some stating that no such saint existed or 

 appeared in the Roman calendar, but others referring to " St. 

 Barr, Bishop of Cork, in the 6th century, whose commemoration 

 day, as Martin correctly states, is the 25th September." Those 

 who uphold the latter derivation in conjunction with the Norse 

 termination ay (oe of the Northmen), would appear to have at 

 least an equal share of the argument. 



Although not admitted in the Boman calendar, many names of 

 saints, Irish, Scottish, and English, to which that honour has not 

 been accorded, are to be fmmd in native calendars, and the more 

 prominent of these are now generally embodied in the calendars 

 published in this country, which are often prefixed to books of 

 Catholic devotion. 



If the first derivation be accepted, it admirably describes the 

 geographical position of the island; if the second be taken, we 

 find much to support it in what is stated: — that the 25th September 

 was kept as the commemoration day of the tutelar saint by the 

 natives, and that the practice is only now dying out, while it is still 

 further supported by the fact that churches on the islands are also 

 called after the saint, e.g., Killbar. In "The Story of Greltir the 

 Strong," translated from the Icelandic by Magnusson (1869), 

 " Barra " is several times mentioned, and, in the index, the name 

 is bracketed " (Barre?/) one of the Hebrides," an evident recogni- 

 tion of the Norse origin of the name. 



Barra is also called Bernera or Berneray. This name Mr. 

 James Macpherson* considers "has a suspiciously foreign appear- 

 ance, but Gaelic writers appear to have assimilated it, and write 

 it, Bearnairidh. Beam means a gap or notch, and airidh (as they 

 spell it) hill-pasturage, or a level green among hills," which 

 describes the features of the interior of Barra Island, north of 

 Castle Bay, though scarcely of the island upon which the light- 

 house is erected. 



The following observations on the Bird-life of Barra Head are 

 principally based upon the results of a long acquaintance with the 

 locality and the species mentioned, and of intelligent and careful 



* I am obliged to Mr. Jas. Macpherson, of Edinburgh, for assisting me in 

 the above notes on the derivation of the name, as well as for much kind 

 help in similar directions elsewhere. 



