urdubhán

an t-urdubhán, urdubhán na hola (Sb). See Éigse xi, 244, s.v. fuinín feóchain. This word has not yet got into the dictionaries, though it is long attested. John O'Donovan found these birds nesting in Inis Gluaire, and writes (in Ordinance Survey Letters, Mayo I, p. 109 of typescript edition): "The Island of Inis Gluaire is frequented by a curious kind of black birds called in Irish TORDUBHÁN's which do not appear any where else on these coasts. They are the Stormy Petrels of Ornithologists, and are said to be found no where in Ireland excepting on Inis Gluaire and Skelliig Mhithil in the County of Kerry. They build in the walls of the old churches on the Island, and I took the croaking of their young, for that of frogs, . ." The spelling urdhubhán in Kennedy's Musaem List is wrong in so far as -dh- misrepresents the Erris pronunciation of the word.