SIBILOUS—SKY. 217 
SkrP-HEGRIE. A name for the HERON. (Montagu.) 
SkiRL or Skrrt Cock: The MISTLE-THRUSH. (Derbyshire.) 
An equivalent of Shrill. 
SkirL Crake: The TURNSTONE. (Shetlands.) From its 
shrill ery. 
Skier: The ARCTIC TERN, COMMON TERN and LITTLE 
TERN. (Ireland.) 
Skits: The YELLOW BUNTING. (Aberdeen.) Skite—to mute. 
SKITTER-BROTTIE : The CORN-BUNTING. (Orkneys.) Swain- 
son thinks it is from its resorting to corn-stacks in winter : 
skite being to mute, and brothies, the cross-ropes of the roof 
of a stack. 
Sxirry Cock or Sxirry Coot: The WATER-RAIL. (Devonshire, 
Cornwall, Somersetshire) : from “ skit ”’==to slide. Also the 
SPOTTED CRAKE (Devonshire) and the MOORHEN 
(Somersetshire). 
Skootr or SHoor: The ARCTIC SKUA. (Shetlands.) Fromitscry. 
Skour. See Scout. 
SKRABE: The MANX SHEARWATER. (Bewick, Montagu.) 
See also Scraber. 
Sxvua or Skua Guitt: The GREAT SKUA. Also others of the 
Skuas ; from the ery. 
Skutrock or SkippAaw: The COMMON GUILLEMOT. (Kast 
Lothian and Northumberland.) From skite=to mute. 
SKY-LARK [No. 62]. Found in Willughby (1678) who terms 
it ‘‘ Skie-Lark,” Turner (1544) merely calling it “ Lerk.” 
Albin has Sky Lark : Pennant (1766) and later authors call 
it Skylark. In Mid. Eng. the name lark occurs as larke 
and laverock : from A.Sax. léwerce, laverce, most probably 
for lewwerca=traitor or guileworker. The reason why 
one of the most cherished of British birds should have 
received so bad a name at the hands of our Saxon forefathers 
seems somewhat obscure. It is considered an auspicious 
token in Orkney, where it is known as “ Our Lady’s hen” 
(Dalyell). It is a popular belief that if larks fly high and 
sing long, fine weather may be expected (Inwards). 
Chambers (‘‘ Popular Rhymes of Scotland”) gives a curious 
rhyming version of the lark’s song as follows :-—— 
Up in the lift go we, 
Tehee, tehee, tehee, tehee ! 
There’s not a shoemaker on the earth 
Can make a shoe to me, to me! 
Why so, why so, why so ? 
Because my heel is as long as my toe. 
The reference in the last line is to the bird’s long hind claw. 
