348 BELIEVED TO HIBERNATE. 



peasants in my neighbourhood firmly believed that so soon 

 as it has ceased att gala, or cry which happens, according 

 to their belief, when it far kdnna lukten af fdrskt ho, that 

 is, gets scent of the new hay it is at once metamorphosed 

 into a hawk ! 



The peasants do not look upon the cuckoo as a bird of 

 passage, but believe that it ligger i dvala that is, lies in 

 a state of trance during the winter months. 



" A man of the name of Lyberg," such were the words of a 

 paragraph that recently went the rounds of the Swedish news- 

 papers, " related that at the village of Kyrkebys, in the parish 

 of Etelhem, and island of Gottland, it happened, sixteen to 

 twenty years ago, that a peasant and his servant, one 

 Christmas-eve, placed a large block of wood on the fire, 

 to serve as a Jul-brasa, or Yule-log; that in the course of 

 the night the warmth of the fire brought to life an entranced 

 cuckoo, which crept forth from its place of concealment, 

 perched itself on a chair, and commenced ' att gala.' Lyberg 

 says, that this circumstance can be attested by several trust- 

 worthy individuals." 



