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64 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
Latin
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QUAIL.
Cotnrnix vulgaris. Gaelic —Gearnulh yort. Welsh
Sojliar, Rhino.
The quail is far commoner in the Highlands than it is supposed
to be, but, from its retired habits, it is seldom seen, and
even when seen, it is generally mistaken for a partridge by ordinaiy
obsei-vers. That it visits, and even breeds in, the remotest
corners of the Highlands will be seen from the following quotation
from Grey :—•" When in the island of North Uist in tlie beginning
of August 1870, Mr John Macdonald, Newton, showed me a nest
of twelve eggs which had been taken near his residence about ten
days previously. These are in tlie collection of Captain Orde."
However, it appears amongst us in very small numbers compared
with what it did amongst the ancient Israelites in the Wilderness,
or even with what it does to the present day in some countries,
according to tlie Rev. J. C. Atkinson, who says in his " British
Birds' Eggs and Nests ":— " In some countries its migi-atory hosts
are so great than one hundred thousand are said to have been
taken in a day.'
Latin
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Cla.ss IV.— Grallatores. Famibj I.— Charadriidte.
GOLDEN PLOVER.
Charadrius plnvialis. Gaelic
C%L'ttijn yr atvr.
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Feadag. Welsh
This beautiful bird takes its Gaelic name, feadag (whistler),
from its plaintive, melancholy cry; about which I have lieard the
following old legend in Strathardle :—Once upon a time the golden
plover inhabited the low straths and river-sides, and was the
sweetest songster of all the birds in the Highlands. It nestled and
reared its young under the shelter of the thick bushes on the sunny
braes, where it had plenty of food and led a comfortable happy
life till tliere came on a very hot, scorcliing summer, the like of
which was never known before or since. The heat began on
"Yellow May-day" (La buidhe Bealltain), and increased more and
more ever}' day till midsummer, when every l)east and bird began
to sufler and comphiin very much of tlie lieat. But amongst them
all none grumbled so much as the golden plover, and it, at last,
grew so discontented that it left its old haunts by the river-side
and wandered upwards in search of cooler quarters. Up and up
it went, over the banks and l)raes, through the wooils and l)0gs,
till at last it came to the open hillside, where it met the partridge,
which then inhabited the highest hills and moors. Frenchmen of
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