250 CAPERCAILZIE 



old woman ; anil CuiUeacli-oidhcJie, the old icoman of the nig/il, is llu 

 owl. I think the Cab/tar in this case is similarly applied. Prof. 

 Newton says Cahhar, an old man, by metaphor an old bird, whicii 

 is the acceptation of Dr Maclachlan's meaning = the old bird of 

 the wood, the capercaillie. 



On the other hand, not a few Gaelic scholars consider that 

 capercaillie is derived from "Capull," a horse — see capel, capell, 

 caples ; Chaucer, line 170; vide Bayley's Did. Brit. = cabal I us, 

 or more correctly a mare. Capull is a masc. noun, but at the 

 present day is limited to a viare, and coille, a rcood. This reading 

 gives " horse of the woods." In Argyllshire and Lochaber the 

 bird is still known by the name " capull-coille." So also it is 

 considered by several correspondents who are good Gaelic scholars. 

 Amongst others, the Rev. Alexander Stewart of Nether Lochaber 

 says: It is called "horse of the woods," because of its size, 

 strength, and beauty, as compared with other wood birds. The 

 word " cajipull-coille " is found in Gaelic songs at the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century. The Rev. Lachlan Shaw, in his history of 

 Province of Moray (1775), also assigns this derivation: "Properly 

 in Erse, Capal-coille, i.e., the wood-horse, being the chief fowl of 

 the woods." In Strathearn, in the south of Perthshire, where 

 native Gaelic is now almost extinct (1879), the name still lingers 

 in this form. The first author of a Gaelic dictionary — McDonald, 

 an Argyll man — thus renders it, and all subsequent authors of 

 Gaelic dictionaries do so likewise. Mr D. Mackinnon, now (1899) 

 Professor of Gaelic in Edinburgh University, who has most 

 kindly taken great trouble in this connection, looked up all the 

 Gaelic diets, accessible, and informs me that all without exception 

 give " capuU-coille," none have caper, cabar, or cabhar. The first 

 Gaelic diet., Mr Mackinnon says, was written by McDonald, an 

 Argyll man, in 1741. Shaw, a native of Arran, prepared the 

 next diet., and published it in 1780. Two small diets, were 

 published in the latter part of the century by two xMacfarlanes. 

 In the nineteenth century our two standard diets. — Armstrong's, a 

 Saxon domiciled in Perth, and the Highland Society's, prepared 

 by scholars from all parts of the country — were published in 1825 

 and 1828 respectively. There followed these : Macleod and 

 Dewar's, two clergymen from different parts of the country ; 

 McAlpine's, an Islay man ; and McEachan's, a Roman Catholic 

 priest, who spent his life, or the greater part of it, in Braemar. 

 The only Irish diet. I (D. Mackinnon) turned up has "CapuU- 

 coille," quoted from Shaw. In the Scoto-Irish dictionai*y given in 

 Llhuyd's Arch. Brit., the word does not appear. 



Besides the above, Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary has "caper- 

 cailye," as compounded of Gaelic cabar, a branch, and caolach, 

 acock — from Bellenden, the Scotch translator of Boece, who gives, 

 "Gaelic Caolach; C. B. Kelliog; Corn. KuUiog; Arm. Kuliog ; 

 Irish Kyleach, a cock," by which another element of confusion 



