408 HORNET— INSFXT 



Beaw-hyrnette (large) ; Cercole ; Hornicle (Sussex), h} riK*l, 

 hyrnetu (A. S.). 



" Connspeac-li " means connas beach, wrangling or dog bee. 

 The hornet cltarwing is a great pest in the west of Scotland, 

 ruining, in particular, willows, at the base of which this insect 

 lays its eggs, and the caterpillars completely destroy both bark 

 and wood, boring galleries therein. 



HORSE-FLY (see (Fly). 



HORSE-LEECH (see Leech). 



HOUSE-WORM (see Worm). 



HUMBLE-BEE (see Bee). 



I 



INSECT. — Ainle (tree) ; Croitheamh (Ir.), cruitheamh, cnuimh, 

 cuileag ; Dadmunn (small), dointe (black) ; Fineag (small), fiolan- 

 fionn (parasite), fionnag, fride (tet) ; Meanbh-bhiastag, mial, miol ; 

 Raodan, reud, reudan (timber) ; Tairbheann (cattle), teannshuil, 

 torain, toranach, torair (corn). 



Cut- wast or waist (Topsell); Jerlie (flying); Quicklings 

 (young). 



The tairbheann has been long known and dreaded as a 

 pest to cattle. A verse charm occasionally resorted to as a 

 supposed cure is " A mharbhadh fiolan fionn, etc., an tairbhein " 

 (see Worm). The tairbheann was considered by some to mean 

 the colic in cattle owing to a surfeit of grass or foggage, and, by 

 the charm, attributed to a worm. ''Nether Lochaber" thought it 

 to be due to an incubating skin. The name " teann-shuil," tight 

 or firm eye, is derived from the fact that an insect's eyes do not 

 move. The sheep-flook or fluke, alias liver-fluke, is a flat insect 

 which breeds in the livers of sheep, etc., and is common to all the 

 Highlands and to Orkney. Though it may not be known generally, 

 coral-insects exist in or off the island of Skye, if not also among 

 other of the Western Isles ; this coral is both red and white. A 

 wonderful species of "insect" is described in Adamnan's Life of 

 ColumciUc, which was said to have attacked Cormac and his crew 

 on the third voyage of that saint to the Orkneys, as follows : " On 

 the tenth hour of the fourteenth day (of said voyage) a multitude 

 of loathsome and annoying insects, such as had never been seen 

 before, covered the sea in swarms, and struck the keel and sides, 

 the prow and stem of the vessel so very violently, that it seemed 

 as if they would wholly penetrate the leathern covering of the 

 ship . . . they were about the size of frogs, they could swim, but 



