Mr Hame-BrouM on the Squirrel in G'reat Britain. 347 



probably rests the fixing of interesting facts connected with 

 the early dispersal of several of our British mammals. 



It appears possible that the Irish words iora and iaronn 

 may have intimate relation with the Gaelic feorag or fiod- 

 harag, of which latter I speak immediately. 



In Ai'gyleshire, alone of all the Scottish counties — except 

 in Braemar in Aberdeenshire — so far as I have been able to 

 learn, does any trace of the squirrel appear in topogTaphy, 

 but in Argyleshire, curiously enough, it occurs no less than 

 five times, viz., in Innis-na-Fheorag in Ardnamurchan ; Glac 

 Fheorag in Appin; Ault Fheorag, Tom-nam-Fheorag, and 

 Easan-Fheorag. Whether these names be correctly derived 

 from the Gaelic name of the squirrel or not is a point about 

 which there is a large amount of discussion and difference of 

 opinion amongst our best Gaelic scholars. For the same 

 reasons already given, viz., the great difi&culties surrounding 

 the identity of numerous Gaelic names, it does not seem 

 desirable in this place to attempt to explain or unravel them, 

 but it may be mentioned that whilst one side upholds the dii-ect 

 derivation from fheorag, a squirrel, another rather inclines to 

 the belief that the name is derived from local features of the 

 localities, such as is undoubtedly the commonest practice in 

 Gaelic topography — thus ; Ault Fiarag (pronounced slightly 

 different from Feorag — genitive Fhedrag) would be the crooked 

 hurnie. But if such came to be applied in one Gaelic-speaking 

 district, why should it be so completely absent from others 

 where many crooked burnies exist, and have not, like the 

 squirrel, become nearly extinct ? 



To show the confusion existing amongst Gaelic names of 

 animals, I wiU just make one quotation from the correspon- 

 dence of Mr James Macpherson. 



As already shown, Fheorag is supposed to derived from 

 feoirich, to question, and ag, the diminutive ; or it may be 

 from fee, an obsolete root-word, earr, a tail, and ag. But now 

 to this, Gaelic scholars add a third, viz., " possibly a corrup- 

 tion or softened pronunciation of Fiodharag, which would 

 mean ' the wood or tree-animal.' " If this is so, the name 

 may have been applied by the early inhabitants not to the 

 squirrel at all but to the marten, whilst a later dispersal of 



