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ON THE WELSH NAMES OF BIRDS OF PREY. 

 By E. Cambridge Phillips, F.L.S. 



It is to be regretted that the Welsh names applied to certain 

 species of birds at the present day are generic, and not specific. 

 The deep Welsh known to cultured Welshmen is scarcely ever 

 used in everyday life, and is now rarely or never written. Hence 

 many of the old Welsh names of birds are likely to die out. 

 Take, for example, the Welsh word, Giach, Snipe. This word 

 expresses the vocal sound uttered by the Snipe in rising, but is 

 applied equally to the Jack Snipe as well as to the Solitary 

 Snipe, supposing (which I much doubt) the Welsh have a know- 

 ledge of the latter bird, which occasionally occurs in Wales. 



Thanks, however, to the kindness of a fellow townsman, I 

 have lately had the pleasure of consulting a rare old Welsh 

 dictionary, which is more historical and descriptive than dic- 

 tionaries usually are. It is by Edward Williams, Bardd Glas 

 Morgan wg (the blue Bard of Glamorganshire), and was printed 

 in Brecon in 1826. It was evidently compiled by a man of con- 

 siderable culture, who possessed some knowledge of birds, as will 

 be seen by my notes on the Eagle, Owls, and Crows, many of 

 which I have taken from it. 



The Welsh name for the Kite is Barcud, pronounced 

 Barkit , and sometimes in Carmarthenshire, Barcutan, plural 

 Barcutanod. No other name seems to be in use for this bird, 

 although a friend of mine, a native of Pembrokeshire, tells 

 me that when a boy he well remembers a clever old keeper 

 applied it to the Buzzard. Boys at the present day, when 

 flying their kites, call them " papur barcutan " (i. e., paper 

 kites). In the Welsh Bible the word Kite is rendered Barcud 

 (Levit. xi. 14, Job xxviii. 7). In the dictionary alluded to, 

 Williams gives it as Barcud, Barcit, Barcitan, Barcut, Barcutan ; 

 English, a Kite ; Cornish, Bargez; Bretagne or Breton, which is 

 nearly the same as the Welsh, Barquet. The word Barcud seems 

 more generally used than Barcutan ; and from the terminal cud, 

 pronounced kit, comes our word Kite. Since some of these notes 

 were first jotted down, I have had the pleasure of reading 

 Mr. Harting's most interesting article on the Berkute or Bargut 

 of Eastern Turkestan, which appeared in the * Field ' of the 27th 



