At the also jar -owl, heather -owl. I have heard it 



of called the heather-bleat, though probably that 

 the Moon. , . ,. J TT 



name commonly indicates the snipe. How 



well I remember from childhood that puzzling 

 riddle 



" The bat, the bee, the butterflee, the cuckoo and the gowk, 

 The heather-bleat, the mire-snipe ; how many birds is that ? " 



I was never * taken-in ' by the first three, but 

 as I had been told or had somehow discovered 

 that the cuckoo was often companioned by the 

 meadow-pipit I thought the latter must be the 

 'gowk.' So I guessed 'four,' taking the 

 heather-bleat to be the nightjar : and it was 

 long before I discovered that the answer was 

 two, for only the cuckoo and the snipe were 

 really named. 



I wonder how many names the Owl has ! 

 Those alone which, like the archetypal name, 

 derive from the old root-word ul (to howl or 

 hoot or screech), must run to some thirty to 

 forty at least, from the Anglo-Saxon 'hule' 

 and later 'ullet' to the familiar 'hoolet' or 

 ' hoolit ' or ' howlet,' or, again, the still current 

 south English ' ullud,' < ullot,' or ullyet.' We 

 have many Gaelic names also, as (for the 

 snowy or barn owl) ' cailleach-bhan,' the white 

 auld wife, or 'cailleach-oidhche,' the night- 

 witch ; or (for the tawny owl) ' bodach-oidhche,' 



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