Editing Boobrie (section)

===Alternative manifestations===
When manifested as a water horse the creature is able to gallop across the surface of lochs; the beating noise of the creature's hooves on the water is the same as if it were galloping on solid ground.{{sfnp|Bane|2013|p=64|ps=none}}

Henderson reproduced parts of Campbell of Islay's manuscripts when writing ''Survivals in belief among the Celts'' (1911). Among them is a story listed as "boobrie as tarbh uisge".{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|p=138|ps=none}} The tale starts by detailing how a man named Eachann fed a colossal black bull when he discovered it writhing in pain and possibly close to death at the side of Loch nan Dobhran, on the west coast of Argyll. Some months later, Phemie, Eachann's girlfriend, is occasionally disturbed by elusive shadows she senses on the loch, which make her think of Murdoch, her former paramour. While she sat dreaming of Eachann one evening when staying at a [[Shieling|sheiling]] near the loch, she sensed the flicker of a shadow behind her, except this time it was Murdoch. He promptly overpowered her by enveloping her in a blanket and tying her hands. At that point, a water bull came to Phemie's rescue by knocking Murdoch to the ground. The bull then knelt down allowing Phemie to get on its back, before transporting her at the speed of light back to the home of her mother.{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|p=139|ps=none}} The bull disappeared, never to be seen again, but a "voice was heard in the air calling out loudly". The verse heard was in Gaelic, and translates as:
{{quote|<poem>I was assisted by a young man
And I aided a maid in distress;
Then after three hundred years of bondage
Relieve me quickly.{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|p=140|ps=none}}</poem>}}
It is then asserted that the tale "reveals the persistence in folk-belief of the idea of transformation, the boobrie being the abode of a spirit".{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|p=140|ps=none}}

The boobrie can also manifest itself in the form of a large insect that sucks the blood of horses.{{sfnp|Monaghan|2009|p=53|ps=none}} Henderson refers to it as a "big striped brown ''gobhlachan'' or ear-wig"{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|p=140|ps=none}}{{efn|Dwelly defines ''gobhlachan'' as, among other things, ''daddy long legs'', ''crane-fly'' and various fish, etc.{{sfnp|Dwelly|1902|p=512|ps=none}}}} with "lots of tentacles or feelers".{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|pp=140–141|ps=none}} It was infrequently seen in this form, usually only at the height of the summer, during August and September.{{sfnp|Henderson|1911|p=140|ps=none}}