240 BIRD 



" Oran na h-Irtich," or the St Kildians' Song, which has a chorus 

 in imitation of the birds; see "(lesto" collection. Hirt or St 

 Kilda is named indeed from the birds as " Hirt nan eun fionn," 

 Hirt of the white birds, which, flesh, feathers, and oil, form a 

 main staple of their existence. " Irt nan ian gonna," Hirt of 

 the blue (green) birds, is another saying, supposed to refer to their 

 appearance on the blue (green) sea. Birds' feathers from the first 

 of time seem to have formtd the means for adornment of both 

 sexes, though now mainly confined as a rule to the female sex. 



O'Reilly states that the " Tuigen," or toga of the ancient Celtic 

 bards, was a most precious garment, and made not only of the 

 feathers, but the skins of white and variously coloured birds, the 

 girdle being of necks of drakes, and thence to the neck of their 

 tufts. This cloak elsewhere is called " Taeidhean " or " Taighean." 



Saint Bridget is said to be the patron saint of birds, and 

 the pied oyster-catcher (^.r.) is hence called Gille-Bride. As 

 mentioned before, auguries were derived by the Romans from 

 the birds ; in the book of the Cruithne or Picts, contained in the 

 Irish Nennius, the Pagan Druids also derrved an augury from 

 watching or listening to the voice of the birds, especially fortelling 

 weather, at which " Nether Lochaber " was also an adept. A 

 pretty and j)oetical expression for a calm being " Feath nan 

 eun," the birds' calm, which is equivalent to "Feath geal," a 

 white calm. Three birds in particular were called "Eoin shithe," 

 or fairy birds, as of old, when migration was almost unknown, 

 they were supposed to disappear mysteriously, hence they were 

 held sacred ; these three were the clacharan or stonechat, the 

 cuthag or cuckoo, and the trian-ri-trian or corncrake ; the 

 clacharan was noticed first of the three, and it was thought 

 more propitious to see it on the wing (a rarity) than standing 

 on a stone — "Chunnaic mi 'n clacharan air cloich luim," I saw 

 the stonechat on a bare stone, was one of several evil auguries. 



Numerous places, as is well known, are named in Giiaelic 

 from birds; for instance. Tor or Torr nead 'n coin, the hill of 

 the birds' nests, near Loch Ranza, Arran, is so called from 

 ptarmigan having been once very plentiful there ; Slieve-da-en 

 (Sliabh da eun), the mount of the two birds, noted in the Annals 

 of the Four Masters for being the place where a certain hero 

 called Congaloch was slain ; Loch-da-gliedh, if not the same, is 

 close to above place ; a place in County Antrim was once 

 called " Fidh-na-finnoige " (fiodh na feannaige), translated by 

 O'Donovan in his able translation of the Annals, "The wood of 

 the O'Finnocks," it may be rendered "the wood of the raven," 

 from which bird of evil omen the O'Finnocks [)robably took 

 their name ; the island called En say is the present Gaelic for 

 "Bird island," from Gaelic "eun or en" and Norse " ey." The 

 "crop" of a bird is sbrogaill, sgroban, or sprogan. As an 

 instance of corruption gone mad, W. J. Watson gives, inter alia, 



