100 ANECDOTE. 



of a friend of mine. I bad presented him \yitli an old 

 Capercali cock at a time when that bird, being far less 

 known than at present, looked on as was a great delicacy. 

 My friend in consequence invited a large party to discuss 

 it. The question then arose as to bow it was to be 

 dressed ? This Avas at length referred to the cook, and she 

 in her turn had recourse to the cookery-book. Her master 

 had told her that it was a " cock of the wood," which to 

 her comprehension meant a " Woodcock," and it was in 

 consequence prepared as such. But what mvist have been 

 the astonishment of the guests at finding the unfortunate 

 Capercali brought to table trail and all! And what made 

 matters still worse, something very much resembling a 

 young fir-tree was found in its stomach. 



As a general rule, all the Woodcocks leave Scandinavia 

 on the approach of winter,* tliough, if a very mild one, 

 stragglers occasionally remain in the more southern parts 

 of both Sweden and Norway, as also in Denmark. In 

 two instances, indeed, I knew it to pass that inclement 

 season in the near vicinity of Ronnum. 



The departure of these birds from the Peninsula tallies 

 with their arrival in England, the larger portion leaving at 

 the end of October and beginning of November, the time 

 somewhat varvins; accordin"- to the state of the weather. 

 Unless delayed by storms and adverse winds on the 

 coast, where numbers then often congregate, they would 

 seem mostly to depart in driblets rather than in flights. 

 Whilst on their way from the interior to the coast, 

 they are believed to travel by sIoav journeys, and to rest 



* Strauge to say, there are people iu Sweden at the present day wlio 

 entertain the very singnLxr crotchet that the Woodcock — as is said of the 

 Swallow — passes the winter months in a torpid state, at the bottom of a 

 lake or river, and is revivified in the spring by the genial warmth of the 

 sTiii. It is not very long since, indeed, that the subject was seriously 

 mooted in print. 



