38 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
T. O’Mahony, treasurer, Esq., read the following communication 
ON SOME OF THE CELTIC NAMES OF THE WATER-NEWT. 
I feel I owe some apology for bringing under your notice a matter which, 
strictly speaking, can scarcely be regarded as belonging legitimately to the sub¬ 
ject of zoology; but as it has, notwithstanding, a slight connection with that 
department of natural history which this Society has been established to culti¬ 
vate, and may in itself possess some slight interest, I hope you will not deem the 
few observations I have to make thereon either irrelevant or misplaced. 
My attention has been so much occupied of late with studies of a collegiate 
and professional nature that I have had very little time, indeed, to devote to the 
pursuit of natural history in any of its branches. My interest in it has not, 
however, been diminished; and I trust the time is now at hand when I shall 
have opportunities of again indulging in studies to which, many years ago, I was 
greatly attached, and of whose importance in every point of view no man can 
be more deeply convinced than I am. 
With respect to the matter on which I am about to offer a few remarks, I may 
mention that my attention was recently drawn to the subject of the Water- 
Newt, by the perusal of a paper on that class of reptiles, contributed to the 
Dublin Natural History Society by Dr. Kinahan, one of the Secretaries of that 
Society, and a valued associate member of our own—a very able and most pro¬ 
mising naturalist. On the interest and importance of his paper I shall not 
dwell. It is published in the first.volume of the Natural History Review, 
page 76, and will amply repay perusal. As the author seemed, however, at a 
loss to account for the origin of the names by which the animal is generally 
known in the different counties of Ireland, and in those parts of Scotland where 
its occurrence has been recorded, and as various derivations have been suggested, 
I thought I might be able to satisfy curiosity on the point, by giving what 
appears to me, at least, a full solution of the question. 
The Celtic names, then, as given by Dr. Kinahan are, I find, Dark Leukers, 
Daddy Leukers, Art Leukers, Arg-Loghers (so called by Dr. Rutty in his 
Natural History of Dublin), Derrig-na-diaoul, and Dearc Luachrach. The 
appellative Derrig-na-diaoul may, I fancy, be with safety omitted, belonging, 
as it does, and as Dr. Kinahan has remarked, to one of the Staphyllinidae. I 
must observe, too, that I never heard the name applied to the animal under 
consideration. To the above list may be added the terms by which the common 
land lizard is known in the western parts of Cork and in some parts of Kerry, 
where, it would appear, the Water-Newt has not been found, and where, cer-. 
tainly, I did not myself, during a residence of many years, ever discover one. 
I cannot say that I searched for it with any great care; but as I was a tolerably 
close observer, I imagine if the reptile existed there it could not fail to come 
under my notice. The similarity, or rather identity, of the names applied to 
both the land and water species evinces a belief that both were the same animal, 
only in different stages of growth or development. In Cork, the land lizard is 
everywhere called the Eas luachra. In Kerry, I have heard it frequently 
called Eascu Luachra . Indeed, I do not remember to have heard it ever diffe¬ 
rently designated. Now, it is not a little remarkable that in every one of these 
names we possess an admirable logical definition, adhering as closely to rules as 
any advocate of the ancient syllogistic art could desire. The word Leuker , in 
the various forms under which it presents itself, always expressing the essential 
difference, and the first part of the compound denoting the genus to which the 
unscientific framers of the appellative conceived the reptile to belong. In every 
instance we find the specific name to be some modification of the word lu4C4JJl 
—Luachair—the term applied in most places where Irish or Scotch Gaelic is 
spoken to that genus of rushes botanically called Luciola—the genus Scirpus 
being denominated 5&4'C4JlTe— geataire. This name clearly indicates the 
usual haunts of the reptile and furnishes an additional proof of the expressive¬ 
ness of the ancient Celtic tongue. Nor in my opinion are the generic names 
less appropriate or significant. They may, I think, be reduced to three, the 
epithet u daddy” being evidently not Celtic though there is a Celtic word of the 
