THEIR PARKNTAGE. 105 



more elongated than in the Capercali hen, but less so 

 than in the Grey-Hen. 



The parentage of the " Ilackel-Fogel " has long been 

 a mooted question with great authorities in Sweden, and 

 I am not quite sure that it is even yet settled. Some 

 contend, and among the rest the late M. Falk, that there 

 are two kinds of these birds in Scandinavia, one being the 

 offspring of the Black-Cock and Capercali hen, and the 

 other of the Capercali cock and Grey-Hen. Nilsson and 

 others, on the contrary, roundly assert that one and all of 

 the " llackel-Fogel " claim the Black-Cock for father, and 

 the Capercali hen for mother. The professor says, in 

 addition, that the several specimens seen by M. Talk, and 

 from which, in part at least, that gentleman formed his 

 judgment, were really not " llackel-Eogel," but sterile 

 Capercali hens (similar to the one depicted at page 3 

 of this volume), which had assumed the plumage of young 

 Capercali cocks. 



One reason for Nilsson assuming the paternity of the 

 " Ilackel-Eogel " to rest solely with the Black-Cock is, 

 that although the latter has been seen on different occa- 

 sions to pair with the Capercali hen,* no one can 



* "One morning, in the year IH2S," says the Knsign Herkepa, "I 

 was at an ' Orre-Lek' iu the parish of Laiiipis, in Finland, and had already 

 shot two Black-Cock when a Capercali hen alighted OH the ground about 

 ninety juices from my ' screen.' She was immediately surrounded by the 

 cocks, who, to my great surprise, one after the other regularly paired with 

 her, while the other cocks, six to seven in number although there were 

 several hens present engaged in a general battle amongst themselves. As 

 it was then full daylight, and the Oapercali hen a considerable distance 

 from me, I did not care to disturb the Lek by firing at her, and hud 

 therefore ample opportunity of convincing myself of her identity. And it 

 was little likely I could be mistaken, as the C'apercali hen has not only a 

 longer neck than the Grey-Hen, but is much larger than even the Black- 

 Cock himself. Two mornings subsequently, and at the same Lek,'' the 

 Knsign goes on to say, " a Capereali hen probably the one seen by myself 



