16 THE I50V ANU CAPEUCALI. 



informed by M. Roman, " a youtli of about twelve years of 

 age, from Willingsberg, captured an old Capercali cock with 

 his hands. It occurred in the following manner : the boy, 

 who was catcliing crayfish in a stream, observed the bird 

 promenading amongst some heather on a little eminence 

 close by, and he immediately conceived the idea that he 

 would endeavour to make it his prize. For this purpose 

 he crept stealtliily up the side of the knoll, but on reacli- 

 iug the top, what was his surprise to find JPelle, with 

 head and tail erect, and feathers ruffled, as if in great 

 anger, coming 'full tilt' against him" — as seen in the 

 accompanying drawing by M. Korner. " He nevertheless 

 mustered courage, and tranquilly awaited the onset of the 

 foe. The contest was severe, Init in the end the youth 

 came off victorious, the Capercali for its temerity paying 

 the penalty of its life." * 



The Capercali thus divesting itself of its natural 

 shyness, and fearlessly approaching people, has occasion- 

 ally given rise in Sweden to the notion that it is actually 

 "possessed." 



"About this time last year," Lieutenant Jack relates, 

 " whilst the cottager Anders Pehrsson, of Bengtsbo, in 

 the province of Wcstmanland, was collecting brushwood 

 in the forest, a Capercali cock, without showing the 

 smallest apprehension, came and alighted on the ground 

 immediately near him. The old l)elief in Troll-Foglar, 

 or enchanted birds, once so common, and which is still 



■'■' May not the " peojile-hating " Capercali spoken of above be such as 

 have escaped from confinement '] Or may tliey not have been .seized with 

 a species of madness, as wonhl at times seem to be the case witli othei- 

 birds? Tn " Scandinavian Adventures," for instance, I have rekted tliat 

 on one occasion a goshawk furiously attacked the horses harnessed to a 

 gentleman's carriage; and only recently we read in the English papers of 

 a poor girl being assailed and most cruelly maltreated about the face by a 

 rook ! 



