CAPBI 



< AI'll.l.AKY VKSM 





in the spring, then U HtUe probability of there being a good breed 

 during the succeeding autumn." 



Our limit* will nut permit us to enter into the details of the more 

 legitimate chace, which will be found in Mr. Lloyd's book : suffice it 

 to say that the rifle is the instrument used by the fair sportsman, 

 and that in the course of hi* sport Mr. Lloyd observed, that when 

 the weather is cold and the mow loose and soft, the oapercali 

 not nnfrequently buries himself beneath iU surface during the 

 night season, and once in a while he found the bird in that 

 situation in the day-time; so that the old wood-cuts of grouse 

 nulling under the snow are not entirely without foundation. Mr. 

 Lloyd remarks that the capercali often becomes the prey of the 

 great horned owl. [BUBO.] 



As an article of food the capercali is justly admired ; and the rapidity 

 of communication consequent upon the increased and increasing 

 development of the powers of steam now furnishes annually the shops 

 of the London poulterers with a supply in the spring. Some assert that 

 at certain seasons the flavour of the bird is rendered extremely un- 

 pleasant by the fir-buds which then form its food ; but those which 

 we have tasted were excellent. The hen, though smaller, is in our 

 opinion preferable to the cock. In preparing the liird for roasting, 

 the breast should be skinned and a veal-caul spread over it. 



Male. Elongated feathers of the throat black ; the rest of the head 

 and neck ashy black ; eyebrows red ; wings and scapulars brown, 

 sprinkled with small black dots ; breast changeable green ; belly and 

 abdomen Mack, with white spots ; rump and flanks sprinkled with 

 ashy zigzags on a black ground ; tail -feathers black, with some small 

 white spots disposed at about two inches from their extremities ; bill 

 nearly S inches long, very strong, hooked, and of a whitish horn- 

 i-.'l.nir ; iris clear brown ; length about 2 feet 10 inches ; usual weight 

 from 9 to 12 Ibs. Graves says that the fine specimen from which his 

 figure was taken measured 3 feet 1 J inch in length, 7 feet 5 inches in 

 breadth, and weighed 15 Ibs. 24 ounces. 



Overall ( Trlrae Crofalliu), male. 



Female. Striped and spotted with red or bay, black and white ; 

 feathers of the head bright ruddy, and those of the breast deep red ; 

 Uil ruddy, striped with black ; bill blackish-brown ; size about one- 

 third lens than that of the male. 



Young Kales, after their first Moult Breast of a less lustrous green 

 than in the old birds, and the ash-colour predominating over the 

 black ; some red feathers spotted with black are scattered irregularly 

 over the plumage. Before the first moult the young males resemble 

 the female*. 



Mr. Lloyd says that the capercali occasionally breed with the black 

 game, the product uf which are in Sweden called Racklebanen : 

 these partake of the leading characters of both species ; but tl, 

 and colour greatly depend upon whether the connection was between 

 the capercali cock and the gray hen, or vice vena. " Out of twenty 



racklehanar, which is the male, two, according to Mr. Kalk, are not 

 alike ; and the difference of colour observable among the mrkli i 

 which is the female, but very rare, is still greater. liacklehanen 

 are very seldom to be met with. During my stay in Wermeland, 

 however, Mr. Kalk had two of these birds in his possession, and I 

 myself shot a third." The bird here alluded to was probably the 

 Kakelhan (Tetrnn oudiiu of Meyer), which Temminck observes, some 

 naturalists, and recently M. Nil/won, have erroneously considered a 

 hybrid between the Capercali and Black -Cock. But at Braemar, in 

 1828, in consequence of the death of the hen which had been 

 imported with a cock, a common barn-door hen was introduced to 

 the latter. The result, according to Mr. Wilson, was, that she laid 

 several eggs, which were placed under other liens: but from these 

 eggs only a single bird was hatched, and when it was first observed 

 it was found lying dead. It was, however, an evident mule ,. r 

 hybrid, and showed such unequivocal marks of the capercali 

 character as could not be mistaken. 



CAPERS, the young flower-buds of Capporu ipinoM. [CAPPAIU- 



|..U I K 1 



CAPILLAIltll. [AI>IANTI-II.] 



( AIM!. LAKY YKSSKI.S, so called from their hair-like minute- 

 ness. The blood-vessels of the body consist of arteries and veins, 

 the arteries carrying the blood from the heart, and the veins returning 

 it to the heart. The blood-vessels that supply the body are 

 arborescent, that is, the branches which spring from the aorta 

 successively increase in number and diminish in size as they proceed 

 from the heart towards their ultimate terminations in the system. 

 In like manner the veins divide. These ultinr:t,- terminal; 

 the arteries, together with the tir.it origins of the veins, constitute a 

 .r system of vessels termed the Capillary System. These 

 capillary vessels are too minute to be detect. I ; -. i. , naked eye; 

 but in the transparent parts of the body of a living animal, when 

 brought under the field of the microscope, they become perfectly 

 visible, as in the web of the frog's foot, the mesentery of the 

 rabbit, the tail of the tadpole, Ac, The greater number of the 

 arteries and veins are then seen to be directly continuous with each 

 other, no substance intervening between the two orders of vessels. 

 \i> words can describe the beauty of the sight presented by the flow 

 of the vital fluid through these minute tubes. Myriads of vessels 

 not visible to the naked eye instantly come into view. In one case 

 the direction of a minute artery being suddenly altered it is reflected 

 on itself, and thus becomes an incipient vein ; in other ea-e.< minute 

 branches are sent off from an artery into a parallel vein ; and in a 

 third case several minute arterial ramifications are continuous with a 

 single vein. The venous capillaries are generally larger and more 

 numerous than the arterial, and they communicate more freely with 

 each other. 



The minute capillary vessels are totally distinct both in structure 

 and office from the large trunks from which they spring. All the 

 tunics of the capillary arteries diminish in thickne.-- and strength as 

 tho tubes lessen in size, but more especially the middle or libroim 

 coat [ARTERY] ; " but this coat may still be distinguished by its 

 colour in the transverse section of any artery whose internal 

 diameter is not less than the tenth of a line, but it entirely disappears 

 in vessels too small and too remote to receive the wave of Mo.nl 

 in a manifest jet. But while the membranous tunics diminish, tho 

 nervous filaments distributed to them increase. The pnmller and 

 thinner the capillary the greater the proportionate quantity of it 

 nervous matter; and this is most manifest in organs of the greatest 

 irritability. The coats of the capillaries successively becoming 

 thinner and thinner at length disappear altogether, and the vessels 

 ultimately terminate in membraueless canals formed in the substance 

 of the tins' 



Of the capillary arteries whieh it has been stated terminate In- 

 direct communication with the capillary veins, some are large . 

 to admit of three or four of the red particles of the blood [Blxx>n] 

 abreast; the diameter of others is sufficient to admit only of .me; 

 whilst others are so small that they can transmit nothing but the 

 serum of the blood. Their prevalent si/e in the human l>ody may be 

 stated at from sixths to s^ths of an inch when naturally 

 with blood. As long as the capillary is of sufficient magnitude to 

 receive three or four blood globules abreast, it is evident that it 

 poetesses regular narietes ; but by far the greater number, before they 

 communicate with veins, lose altogether their membranous ooata. 

 There are no visible openings or pores in the sides or ends of the 

 capillaries by means of which the blood enn be extravasated 

 preparatory to its being imbibed by the veins. There is nowhere 

 apparent a sudden passage of the arterial into the venous stream, no 

 al.rupt. lioundary between the division of the two systems. Tim 

 arterial streamlet winds through long routes, and dcseril>cK nm 

 turns before it assumes the nature and takes the direction of a 

 The ultimate capillary rarely passes from a large 

 arterial into a large venous branch. 



The capillary network differ* in the pi/.- and width of the meshes 

 in ditler.-nt parts. It is very close in the lungs and in 

 coat of the eye; close also in muscle, in the skin, ami in most parts 

 of the mucous membrane, in glands and secreting md in 



the gray part of the brain and spinal cord, (in the other hand, it 



