2 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



and his reputation as a Gaelic scholar and voluminous 

 Graelic author entitles tliese views to the highest considera- 

 tion : — 



Al>out the second i>art of tlie word Dr. ]\raclauchlan con- 

 siders there can he little room lor (loul)t, and most Gaelic 

 scholars appear to agree in this ; but the first part of the 

 word, he acknowledges, is more difficult. He says — 

 " ' CabharJ pronounced ' Cavar,' means, according to our dic- 

 tionaries, a hairk or old hird. It is not at all unlikely that it 

 is the word spelled * Caper.' There is a similar word used in 

 the name for a snipe, * Gahhar-athar,' thought by some to 

 mean th^^ goat of the air, from its bleating note. But," Dr. 

 ^laclauchlan continues, " it is a masculine noun, and ' gahliar' 

 a g<»at, is feminine. I therefore lean to the idea that both in 

 Cabhar-athar and Cahhar-coille — the one being the hird of the 

 air, and the other the hird of the v:oods — the original term is 

 Cabhar." Dr. Maclauchlan considers that " Caher-coille" is 

 the orthography wliich comes nearest to the original. In a 

 later letter tf> Professor Newton — who at that time w^as pre- 

 paring an article on the Capercaillie for the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica, and who lias kindly put the above correspond- 

 ence at my disposal — Dr. Maclauchlan states that the w^ord 

 CahJutr is not one in common use, and tliat " we are indebted 

 for its meaning to our dictionaries, except in so far as it may 

 enter into the formation of words like Capercoille. The Latin 

 Hciux, so far as I ajiprehend, comes nearest to the meaning of 

 * old* in ca]»har, ' not antiquus! There is a ])layful way of 

 applying sucli words to the formation of names in Gaelic. 

 For example : — Bodach is an old man, and Bodach-ruadh, the 

 red old man, is the rock-cod. Cailleach is an old iroman, and 

 Caillcavh-ftidhchr, tlie old looman of the night, is tlie owl. I 

 think the Cal>har in tliis case is similarly ai)j»licd.'' 



Professor Newton {Encyc. Brit, art. " Capercally ") says : — 

 " rMl.l.'.r „,. nfd man, liy mctnjilior an old hird, wliich is tlie 



