Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/132

124 soon "roared out, for the burning plough-irons were scorching her inside." She removed her charm from the churn, and was then suffered to depart in peace. .

Brood of Ducks (ante, p. 61).—The querist asks for the proper name and whether it is squab. Is he thinking of squab used by some for young unfledged pigeons and by some for all young birds? I believe that a distinct word for such an object as a brood of ducks might be found in every county. I can supply a few. In Wiltshire and Surrey they call it a troop; in Dorsetshire a trip. In Sussex they call young wild ducks just able to fly flappers. In Suffolk they call a flight of ducks a drove. For other birds there are other more or less generally appropriated proper terms. Of rooks, a congregation. Of starlings, a gathering. Of quails, a covey in some places (as of partridges), in other places a bevy. A brood of pheasants, a nide (evidently the same word as nid).

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In Yorkshire a brood of either ducks or chickens are called a cletch; probably that is the peculiar word your querist is in search of. The youngest of a litter of pigs is in this and adjoining counties termed a ritling.

Stockport.

Would that I could play the Daniel and recover the word that is gone from Mr. ! I can but assure him that squad, a group or company, would not be at all an inappropriate term to apply to a family of ducklings. When it got afloat, squadron would exactly meet the case.

E. G.

Curious Superstition in Ross-shire.—A correspondent at Shieldaig writes to a northern newspaper:—"A respectable crofter and fisherman, residing in this neighbourhood, was taken seriously ill, with symptoms of what no doubt was gravel, and, as is usual in such cases, a messenger was at once despatched to a neighbouring gamekeeper for the otter's bladder. The bladder is the property of the keeper, in whose possession it has been for a number of years, and is kept by him specially for the purpose of curing this distressing complaint. Immediately upon the bladder having been brought to the sick man's house, and the appropriate charms and incantations having been solemnly repeated, it was several times filled with cold water taken from a stream running towards the east, and the patient made to