t'LY 405 



ather-bill or hill) ; Birs, birss, blawert (bluebottle), blood-sucker, 

 bluebottle, breas, breeze, brese, briefe (horse), brims, brimsee, 

 bristle-tail (gad), brize, brizze (gadfly), brock (iphis-cuckoo-spit), 

 bry, buU-stang, buver (gnat) ; Cadew, caddis, chaffinger, clag, 

 clagg, cleg, clegg, clock-a-leddie, clock-leddie, clok-leddy (lady- 

 bird), crane ; Daddy-long-legs, deil's needle (dragon), doctor 

 (horse), dunsheugh ; Edderbowt ; Father-long-legs, fiddler, flea, 

 flee, fleein' adder or dragon, fleeoch, fleeock, fleoge (A. S.), 

 fleonde-naeddre (A. S. — dragon), flush-vlea (house), friar (crane) ; 

 Gad, gad-bee or bree, gleg, gnaet (A. S.), gnat, gnit, goad-bee or 

 fly (horse), grandfather, greehdrake (May — North) ; Harry-loiig- 

 legs, harvestman (crane), hawk, heather-bill, hobby-horse (dragon), 

 horse-adder stanger or stinger (gad or dragon) ; Jacks (turnip — 

 Suffolk), jacky-breezer, Jenny-nettles or spinner ; Long-leggit- 

 tailor ; Marsh-briar (horse), mawking (bluebottle), matilot (house), 

 midge, miege (A. S.) ; Natter-cap or cop ; Piper ; Sanging (or 

 sanguineous) eather (large dragon), scur (May), sittie-fittie 

 (ladybird), snak-stang, spin-Mary, spinnin' or spinning Jenny 

 or Maggie, spout-fly (bluebottle), stang, stanger, stut (gnat 

 — Som.), sut ; Tang, tanging-nadder, torie (grub) ; Vlee, vly ; 

 Yedward, etc. 



As evidence of the great extent of this department, viz., 

 entymology, and the necessity for research, seeing we are here 

 barely touching on the Celtic fringe of the subject, it may be 

 mentioned that, according to Percy H. Grimshaw, F.E.S., who 

 lectured lately before the members of the Edinburgh Association 

 of Science and Art, there are 40,000 different kinds of flies in the 

 known world, whereof Britain has 2900 belonging to her alone. 



The gadfly is so called from its humming sound, it is said, the 

 dung-fly or breeze-fly from its floating almost helplessly on the 

 breeze as it blows, the gnat from the whirring or rustling of its 

 wings, the dragon-fly is often called the hawk-fly and is said to 

 breathe through the end of its tail ; the ladybird beetle is often 

 called the ladybird fly. Midge is said to be derived from " mugya," 

 buzzer. An interesting and instructive article on the gadfly or 

 creithleag by "Alasdair ruadh," the late Rev. A. MacGregor, 

 Inverness, will be found in Vol. VI. of the Gaidheal, where he 

 points out that it is the female of this fly alone which is trouble- 

 some to horses, and that merely from the desire to lay her eggs, 

 and traces the process of creation. The irritation caused by this 

 fly is said — strange to say — to be very beneficial to horses, inasmuch 

 as these flies suck out the stable blood and enable the animals to 

 gather more from meadow and hill grazing. A Scottish (Lowland) 

 phrase in reference to the gadfly is, "the beasts hae ta'en the 

 birse," when animals, stung by these or other insects, are restless. 

 A plant, which we cannot give an English equivalent for, is called 

 "riaghal righeal or rial cuil' or chuil'," the fly reprover, or that 

 which rules insects. Elyot says the name "brief" or "briefe" is 



