At the also jar-owl, heather- owl. I have heard it 



Rising- of called the heather-bleat, though probably that 

 the Moon. , . -,. . .V • u 



name commonly indicates the snipe. How 



well I remember from childhood that puzzling 



riddle 



" The bat, the bee, the bidterfiee, the cuckoo and the gowk, 

 The heather-bleat, the mire-snipe ; how many birds is that ?" 



I was never * taken-in ' by the first three, but 

 as I had been told or had somehow discovered 

 that the cuckoo was often companioned by the 

 meadow-pipit I thought the latter must be the 

 'gowk.' So I guessed 'four,' taking the 

 heather-bleat to be the nightjar : and it was 

 long before I discovered that the answer was 

 two, for only the cuckoo and the snipe were 

 really named. 



I wonder how many names the Owl has ! 

 Those alone which, like the archetypal name, 

 derive from the old root-word ul (to howl or 

 hoot or screech), must run to some thirty to 

 forty at least, from the Anglo-Saxon 'hule' 

 and later 'ullet' to the familiar 'hoolet' or 

 6 hoolit ' or ' howlet,' or, again, the still current 

 south English < ullud,' < ullot,' or < ullyet' We 

 have many Gaelic names also, as (for the 

 snowy or barn owl) * cailleach-bhan,' the white 

 auld wife, or ' cailleach-oidhche,' the night- 

 witch ; or (for the tawny owl) « bodach-oidhche,' 



204 



