2 Otters and Otter-Hunting. 



names for the Otter, which, taken together, are 

 admirably descriptive of its various characteristics. 

 In the Brythonic group of the Celtic languages, 

 the words all mean ''water-dog": Breton dotirgi 

 and (modern) ki-dour ; Welsh, dwrgi; Cornish, 

 dofergi (composed of dofer, an old form of dotir, 

 water, and ci, a dog), also written devergi, dourgi, 

 durgi, dovergi; but in modern Cornish, according 

 to the system framed by Mr. Henry Jenner, 

 F.S.A., in his '' Handbook of the Cornish 

 Language," it should be spelled dowrgi. The 

 Gaelic group has also this word for the Otter : 

 Irish, -oobxxtt-cu, Scottish Gaelic dobhar-chi\ a 

 word which has now come to be employed for the 

 Otter-hound. The most usual name for the Otter 

 in the Gaelic-speaking parts of the Highlands is 

 dbbhran (pronounced dbran), which may again 

 mean '' the water thing," or may refer to its 

 quality of shyness, since dbbhranach is shy, dis- 

 tant; or on the other hand, dbbhranach (shy) may 

 be derived from dbbhran and really mean Otter- 

 like, retiring. Craigendoran in Argyllshire, so 

 well known to travellers from Glasgow to the 

 Western Highlands, is the anglicised spelling of 

 Creag an dbbhran, "the rock of the Otters." 

 Cu-donn, another Gaelic name for the Otter, 

 means the brown dog, and cu-dur also the water- 

 dog. Beist-dubh, the black beast, and beist-donn, 



