4 THE CAPERCAILLIE. 



forests." (I presume lie used " forests " in the usual sense, and not in tliat 

 of "a forest or chase.") 



"We are not yet done with combinations, as we have Capullcaolach, Horse- 

 cock ; and Yarrel, ^British Birds ^ (1st edition), seems inclined to entertain 

 this view, and finds parallels in " Horse-mackerell, " "Horse-fly," (?) "Horse- 

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

 "urugallus" {icrus, a wild bull). Thus, again, Bull-finch, Bull-trout, etc., 

 but some of these 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. 



There 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 aloyie, but first to the shepherd or crofter, whose family has for genera- 

 tions lived upon the same land, and whose father or grandfather was very 

 likely the person 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. 



