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50 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
Latin
Latin
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Garrulns qlandanus. Gaelic Sgraicheag, Sgraichaq choiUe.
Welsh Screch y coed.
Group III.— Scaiisores. FamUy I.— Picida'.
GREEN WOOD-PECKER.
Picas viridis. Gaelic Lasair-choile (Lightfoot). Welsh
CnoceU y coed, Delor y deriv.
This beautiful bird, now very rare, if not extinct, in the
Highlands, seems to have been quite common in olden times.
Pennant mentions it in 1777. Lightfoot gives its Gaelic name in
1772. It is mentioned as a common bird in Dunkeld parish in
the Old Statistical Account in 1798, also in Don's Fauna of Forfar-
shii-e, 1812. This is an example, like the nightingale and several
others, of how some birds, without any known cause or reason,
have left Scotland entirely, or else become very rare, within the
last fifty years, while many others seem to be getting much more
common.
Latin
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GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
Piciis Major. Gaelic Smigan-daraich (Grey), Snagan-mor,
Snag (Alexander Macdf)uald). Welsh Delor fraith.
WRYNECK.
Latin YunxtorquiUa. Gaelic Geocair, GUle-nn-cahhaig. Welsh—
Gwas y gog, Givddfdro
Very curiously I tind that in most countries tliis bird is
reckoned the cuckoo's forerunner, or attendant, and so gets that
name in most languages.
In English Cuckoo's vuite. Gaelic GiUe-nn-cuhhaig. Welsh —
Gwas y gog. Swedish Gjol-fi/ta, dr.
In the Highlands we have the old nursery rhyme —
Le theanga fad biorach
Thug Gille-na-cubhaig, smugaid na cubhaig,
A beul na cubhaig, gu brog-na-cubhaig.
With his long sharp tongue.
The cuckoo's attendant carried the cuckoo's spittle
From the cuckoo's mouth to the cuckoo's shoe.
The wryneck has an extremely long tongue, which it can ilart out
to a great length to catch an ant or insect, and it was supposed to
carry the " cuckoo's spittle," tlie well-known white frothy substance
so often seen on plants, and to deposit it on the "cuckoo's
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