NAMES OF BIRDS 233 



The eagle is the only bird, except the hawk, ever specially named, 



and as follows: — 



Mar iolair Thorno fo og sgiath 

 Thionndaidh mi mo shuil air an Triath. 



Like eagle of Torno on young wing 

 I turned my eyes upon the Cliief 



or, 

 Like U-thorno's young eagle 

 I turned my eyes upon my father. 



Cath-Loduinn, Duan IIL 



In opposition to the foregoing, reference is here made to the 

 paragraph in this work under " Blackbirds," which gives a very 

 contradictory account, and proves, or seems to prove, that our 

 Scottish Ossian and the Irish Oisin have been two very different 

 })ersonages, or that one or other, if not both of the historians, 

 must be partly in the wrong. 



Birds and animals of this country in the days of Ossian were, 

 or are supposed by some to have been, not numerous, though 

 this is very questionable, and that Ossian's acquaintance with 

 them was slight, as he and his heroes were very much otherwise 

 occupied, and the creatures now so well known were little 

 subject to the uses or pleasures of mankind ; latter-day research, 

 for instance, shows us that there are 110 different species of 

 birds in the island of Lewis alone. Modern Gaelic poetry, which 

 however is for the most part only some 300 or 400 years old, 

 abounds with descriptions of thrush and lark, and the sweet song 

 by MacLachlan of Rahoy, "'S binn leam na h-eoin, na h-eoin 

 bhoidheach, bhinn chluinn mi na h-eoin," etc., gives ulterance to 

 the deep love true poets always had, and will have, for birds. 

 In the Book of the Dean of Lismore, Caoilte's ransom for Fionn 

 to Cormac Mac Art, some of the English or Scottish meanings 

 differ from those now accepted, or at least as found and given 

 here, while there are some untranslated and untranslatable, such 

 as "Geillt, sruall, eachta, ceingeach (perha])s), and cith ceangach, 

 caochan, cathal, and biorach." It is onlj' assumed that the 

 foregoing are birds, cith ceangach meaning a bold leader of 

 animals, though birds have their leaders also, another term for 

 which is " Ceannianlainn." In the Revue Celtique we find a 

 reference to totemism in the geasa laid upon Conaire by (his 

 father) Nemglam or Niamglan, the king of the birds, never to 

 kill a bird. 



To Celts whose domicile of origin is the East, Eastern poetry 

 has peculiar attractions, indeed has moulded much more modern 

 among Celts ; in Persian poetry, for instance, we find a poet 

 bearing the name "Ferideddin Attar," who wrote the "Bird 

 Conversations," a mythical tale, in which the birds come together 

 to choose their king, and resolve on a pilgrimage to a certain 

 mountain to pay their homage. The tone of the poem is said 



