l<t BEWILDERMENT. 



much ventilated in Scandinavia ; but as tliey mostly 

 occur during the breeding season, and seem confined to 

 males alone, it appears to be the general opinion, that 

 they arise from the senses of the bird being bewildei-ed by 

 disappointed affections. " Love," says the late Rev. C. U. 

 Ekstrom,* " has the same effect on this bird as on many 

 other animals, and sometimes leads to acts that seem so 

 anomalous as to partake of madness; and Avhen this 

 passion, which always obscures the faculties, is mixed up 

 with stupidity, the effect is more apparent. So it happens 

 with Felle (the nickname of the Capercali) : when he is 

 driven from a harem, Avhere a more powerful Pasiia 

 than himself is ruling, he seeks his fortune in other quar- 

 ters ; and if the atmosphere at the time be misty, he often 

 pursues a wrong course, and as a consequence is met witli 

 in places, where one would no more dream of seeing him 

 than of seeing an ostrich." 



The Capercali is of a pugnacious disposition. M. 

 Svederus tells us, that it is courageous " and has been 

 known to maintain long and bloody combats with tlic 

 eagle before becoming its prey ! " That it should strug- 

 gle violently when in the talons of " the king of the air," 

 I can well understand, but that it should maintain 



* A naturalist and spoi'tsman of the very first order, combining qualities 

 seldom found united in the same individual, and rendering his remarks 

 infinitely nioi'e valuable than those of the generality of mere closet naturalists, 

 whose chief object seems to be to split hairs and invent species for their 

 own glorification. Well might Bishop Pontoppidan, when sjieaking of 

 them, and complaining of their having made out no fewer than thirty- 

 six kinds of thrushes, exclaim: " They give themselves a particular deal 

 of trouble to find out the chai-acteristic marks of each kind of 1 lird in his 

 generation ; yet I am of opinion that one may, in this as in other things, 

 multiply species without occasion, and thereby confuse one's ideas, instead 

 of clearing np or establishing them ; for between some of them the ilif- 

 ference is so small, that I look upon it to be rather accidental than specific." 

 — {English Transla/ion, 17.5-').) 



