REARING THE YOUNG. 29 



autumnal months, when it lives for the most part on berries 

 and the like, than in the winter, when its food chiefly 

 consists of pine leaves, which give its flesh a somewhat 

 resinous flavour. In Wermeland and the adjacent country 

 it is a standing dish during the last-named season at the 

 houses of the gentry, who usually lay in an ample supply 

 of these birds at the setting-in of the frost. On the 

 occasion of births, marriages, and burials, with the 

 peasantry, the Capercali is looked upon as a needful 

 addition to the feast. With them it is eaten either simply 

 boiled, or first parboiled and afterwards roasted until hard 

 as a stone, in which state it will keep for weeks or months. 

 During my residence in Wermeland the price of a Caper- 

 cali cock was about one shilling sterling, and of a hen 

 sixpence, but since then these birds have probably become 

 much dearer. 



The Capercali is easily domesticated, and if reared 

 from a chick becomes very tame. I have myself seen 

 more than one running at large in the poultry yard ; and 

 even if captured in the forest when full-grown, more 

 especially if in its first year, it soon becomes reconciled to 

 confinement. I speak from some experience, having had 

 many hundred in my possession. When throwing grain 

 to them in the aviary, where at times there were as many as 

 between twenty and thirty, a large portion of them would 

 collect about my feet, like so many barn-door fowls, and 

 some would even feed out of my hand. To a sportsman 

 it was a glorious sight ! 



Certain people in Sweden have speculated on the 

 practicability of converting the Capercali into a useful 

 adjunct to the homestead. As regards England, no 

 point would be gained, even were the experiment to prove 

 successful ; but for the good reason given by M. Nord- 

 holm, as will be seen below, it might be worth trying 

 in Scandinavia. 



