The meaning, unless it is ' the lumpy ' or ' awk- 



Coming ward one ' ; while an English factor knew it 

 ' as the grass-drake or meadow-drake, and again 

 as the night-crow — the latter obviously a sur- 

 vival from the Anglo-Saxon ' myghte-crake ' 

 or a name re-given from like association of 

 ideas. The same shrewd farmer quite believed 

 that a corncrake is governor and leader of each 

 flock of quails, at any rate in the season of 

 migration — an idea held by the Greeks of old 

 and retained by the Greek and Sicilian quail- 

 shooters of to-day, and obviously wide-spread, 

 as the Germans call the landrail the quail-king 

 ( Waclitelkonig), the French ■ le roi des cailles^ 

 the Italians ' il re di quaglie,' and the Spaniards 

 ' el rey de las cordonices\ However, if he had 

 been a Gael he could have spoken of the quail 

 only by hearsay most likely, for it is very rare 

 in the Highlands, and for myself I have never 

 seen one there. Its name {garra-gart or 

 gartan) is not unique ; and the common term 

 muir-eun is solely biblical, 'sea-bird' or 'bird- 

 from- oversea,' because of the allusion in 

 Numbers xii. 81. 



But the dew is heavy on the grass : the 

 corncrake calls : on a cloudy juniper the night- 

 jar churrs : the fhionna or white moth wavers 

 above the tall spires of the foxglove. The 

 midsummer eve is now a grey-violet dusk. 



198 



