330 ROBIN— ROOK 



the very prosaic name of the " painter's ghost," as it is mucli in 

 evidence when painters cannot work from the inclemency of the 

 weather. In Brittany, a fitter sense of things exist, the legend 

 going that the robin was once a mere sparrow, but it tried to 

 pluck a thorn from the crown placed on our Saviour's brow, and 

 in doing so got her breast dyed with blood ; it is the male alone 

 which has the red breast. Tennyson's natural history seems at 

 fault when he says, " in the spring a fuller crimson comes upon 

 the robin's breast " ; the spring is the very time the robin's breast 

 is least red, it is then buff. 



As an augury of coming storm, the following lines may 

 quoted as having proved perfectly true : — 



A Rabairt leis a broilleach dhearg Robert with the ruddy breast 



Cha d' thainig thus' an diugh le In anger thou comest not toK3ay, 



fearg, But to let us know of wintry blasts 



Ach' dh Mnnseadh gum bheil doinnion With blood of Macintoshes on snow 



'teachd down-pressed. 



Le full nan Toiseach air an t-sneachd. 



When robins sing cheerfully on summer evenings, it is a surt 

 sign of fine weather ; it may be quite unsettled looking and 

 even raining when heard, it is sure to clear up in the night, 

 and be fine next day. On the other hand, when it is going to be 

 wet weather, robin will be found in a hedge or bush chirping in 

 a melancholy way, or possibly not chirping at all, but looking 

 miserable, and that even though the weather is not yet wet or 

 perhaps threatening. So sacred is this bird held that a decoction 

 of the very bark of a rose-brier in which a robin's nest is, is said 

 to be a cure for some ailments. 



ROLLER. — Cuairsgean. 

 The garrulous one. 



This is a rare bird both in Highlands and Lowlands. It has 

 been seen, and shot, near Inverness, and also Dunkeld. 



ROOK (see also Crow). — Cnaimh-fhiach or fhitheach, creum- 

 hach ; Rocas, rocuis, rocus. Irish, preachan. 



Carnell, era, craw ; Fleak, flick ; White-neb (old). 



The etymology is from "hroc" (A. S.), Croaker or Norse 

 "hrokr," rocas, from "roc," hoarse. 



Cho garbh ri rocas. As rough as a rook, seems the only proverb 

 procurable. As to rooks being always black, the following is some of 

 the latest evidence to disprove the assertion. A writer in the Edin- 

 burgh Evetdng Dispatch of June 1903 says that he shot a pure tchite 

 rook at Balmuto, Fife, on the 2nd of that month, while next day 

 another writer testifies to having shot two white ones in the spring 

 of 1898, they being nearly full-grown and of a creamy white colour. 



