urdubhán

This little-known word has come in for considerable mauling at the hands of wrters heretofore. O'Donovan, Survey Letters, mayo I, 109, writes : . . Inis Gluairé is frequented by a curious kind of black birds called in Irish TORDUBHÁN ' s . . They are the Stormy Petrels of Ornithologists, and are said to be found nowhere in Ireland excepting on Inis Gluaire and Skellig Mhithil . . Seán Mac Giollarnáth in correspondence I had with him in the forties informed me (if my memory is reliable) that he had not met the word. Unfortunately in copying it down then he managed to introduce -dh- for -d- in the spelling, thus urdhubhán. Others have since copied this erroneous spelling ; it is in Kennedy's Musaem Bird List. See Éigse XI, 244, s.v. fuinín feóchain.