•! THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



forests." (1 presume he used "forests" in tlie usual sense, and not in that 

 of "a forest or clmsc.") 



We nro not yet done witli combinations, as we have Capullcaolach, Horse- 

 cot^k ; an»l Yam-l, 'Jiritish Jiirds' (1st edition), seems inclined to entertain 

 Uiis view, and finds i>andltls in "Horsc-mackerell," "Horse-fly," (?) "Horse- 

 leech." Or in German, "Auerhan;" Dutch, "Oucrhan;" or the Latin, 

 *'urugalhi3" (urus, a wild bull). Thus, again, Bull-finch, Bull-trout, etc., 

 but some of the.sc names can be traced to other sources than pre-eminence in 

 size or strength ; at all events the origins of such compounds are not by any 

 means always clear enough to admit of generalisation. 



Tliere are other combinations, but the above -given — along with Dr. 

 Maclauchlan's — appear to be the most important. In order to obtain the 

 correct translations of Gaelic names, we must not, I believe, go to the Gaelic 

 scholar alone, but first to the shepherd or crofter, whose family has for genera- 

 tions livetl ui>on the same land, and whose father or grandfather was very 

 likely the jx-rson who first applied the names, and which, being handed down 

 from father to son, would preserve their purity of pronunciation, intonation, 

 and significance, as well as, probably, a relation of the circumstances under 

 which they were so named. 



