40 
DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 
metaphoric use may be cited in Cailleach=an old woman, and 
cailleach-oidhche==an owl, lit. “* the old woman of the night.” 
There is however the word gabhar—=a goat (but this is 
a feminine noun) and also capull=a horse, which although 
a masculine noun is at the present day limited in its appli- 
cation to a mare. Mr. Harvie-Brown says that in Argyle- 
shire and Lochaber the bird is still known by the name 
of “‘ Capullcoille,” which Macgillivray in 1837 gave as a 
Gaelic name for the species. This derivation, as given by 
Yarrell, is supported by many authorities and references. 
Saunders preferred gabur, a goat (with allusion to the 
elongated chin-feathers of the male and his amorous 
behaviour in spring) and coille, wood. This latter will, of 
course, suggest Lat. caper, capri, a he-goat (cognate with 
Eng. to caper) and the Gaelic coille, and I do not know 
that the hybrid word would be so very improbable. Gesner’s 
“ Capricalea’”” and “ Capricalze ”’ suggest that he derived 
from the Lat. capri, a goat, and calca of course suggests 
a kicking or capering goat. Merrett (1667) has “ Capri- 
calca, Capricalze Scotis,” which of course is probably 
copied from Gesner. In any case the metaphorical sense 
is similar, i.e. “‘ Old man of the wood,” “‘ goat of the wood,” 
etc. Other derivations have been suggested, but without 
so much ground for their accuracy. The Erse name appears 
to be Capal coile, ‘‘ the Wood Horse, being the chief fowl 
of the woods ”’ (Shaw, “* Hist. Prov.”’ Moray, 1775). Jamieson 
in his great Scottish Dictionary spells it “‘ Capercailye,” a 
variation which Mr. Harvie-Brown traces to Bellenden in 
his translation of Hector Boethius, 1553. For further 
researches into the origin and spelling of this most difficult 
name see Mr. Harvie-Brown’s “‘ Capercaillie in Scotland ” 
(1888). There is no doubt, however, that the best and 
most correct name for the species, and a good English 
one to boot, would be ‘‘ Wood-Grouse,”’ a name moreover 
sanctioned by its usage in many of the older ornithological 
works from Pennant (1766) to Montagu and on to Mac- 
gillivray (1837). Pennant, however, while calling it Wood- 
Grouse, states that north of Inverness it is known by the 
names of ‘‘ Caper-calze ” and “ Auer-calze,”’ and Macgillivray 
in 1837 stated it was known in Scotland by the name of 
Capercailzie. It appears now to be flourishing in several 
counties of Scotland, while in ancient times it could never 
have been particularly common, as most of the references 
to it in ancient books show. So far back as 1651, as recorded 
in the “‘ Black Book of Taymouth” (pp. 433-4), we find 
