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Latin
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The Gaelic Names of Birds. 69
BLACK-WINGED STILT.
Uimpantopics melnnopterus. Gaelic Fad-chat^ach, Luryannch.
Welsh Cwttyii hirgoes.
This is a very rare bird now in the HiLchlauds, though not
so long ago it sc^eins to have been found in many different districts.
Don mentions, in his Forfarshire list of birds, that it was found
on the mountains of Glen-Clova, also on Ben-Lawers in Perthshire.
It is also mentioned in the New Statistical Account of the parish
of tJlensheil as being a rare bird in that parish in 183G ; also in
several other districts.
Latin
Limosa rufa.
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BAR-TAILED GODWIT.
Gaelic Rhoid ghuilbneach (Grey). Welsh
— Rhostog rhudd.
RUFF.
Latin — Machetes inujnax. Gaelic— Gibengan. Welsh — Yr
ymladdgar.
WOODCOCK.
IsAtm—Scolopax ruRticola. Gaelic Coilleach-coille, Grom-nanduilleag,
Greobha7,Grailbeag, Uddacag (A. Macdonald),
Uday (Uist). Welsh—Gyffylog.
T have already had to lament so often that so many of our
birds have either become extinct altogether, or else extremely rare,
that it is with great pleasure that I now come to one that seems
to l)e increasing vastly witli us, and also now staying to breed
with us regularly. Pennant says in 1772 : — "These birds appear
in flights on the east coasts of Scotland about the end of October,
and sometimes sooner ; if sooner, it is a certain sign of the winter
being early and severe; if later, that the beginning of the winter will
be mild. Woodcocks make a very short stay on the east coasts
owing to their being destitute of wood ; but some of them resort
to the n\oors, and always make their progress from east to west.
They do not arrive in Breadalbane, a central pai't of the kingdom,
till the begiianing or middle of November ; and the coasts of
Northern Lorn or of Ross-shire till December or January; are very
rare in the more remote Hebrides, or in the Orkneys. A few stragglers
now and then arrive there. They are equally scarce in Caithness.
T do not recollect that any have Ijeen discovered to have bred
in North Britain." As a proof that woodcocks arc not scarce in the
Isles now, I may mention that Thompson, in his " Birds of Ire-
land," tells us that in the winter of 184G-47 one thousand w(,odcocks
were killed on two estates alone in Islay— Ardinniersy and
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