Gàidhlig / English
Striochdag

Striochdag

Posted by Kate on Thursday 25th August
This week I’m pleased to bring to you a few phrases connected to birds and their feathers. Striochdag is our word of the week, and this is what is known by the streak of coloured feathers on a bird’s wings. This word was recorded in Scalpay, Harris. An iteag maodhair is the tail feather of a black-backed gull which is used for fly-fishing in Islay. A sgarbh topanach is a cormorant with one ragged feather sticking up from its head in South Uist. A sgaomaire is a ‘feather brain’ in Loch Abar!

The cloimhteach are the soft downy feathers that you see on chicks. I once heard a very nice story connected to cloimhteach about an eider duck, a cormorant and a seagull.

The sun decided to give the best downy feathers to the first bird which could rise in the morning to greet her. The cormorant and the seagull were very excited by this prospect and they both kept going right through the night, so that they wouldn’t miss the sun when she rose. But they grew far too tired to rise in the morning. The eider duck put her head under her wing, slept soundly and was thus ready to rise to greet the sun when she rose. This is how she got the best down of all the birds.
 
I will leave you with a riddle:
 
‘A black cockerel in yonder town;
A black feather and a brown feather;
Two red feathers on the point of his wing;
And more than threescore on his back.’
 
You will find the answer here. As you see, the meaning of feather is not as you might expect.

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