GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. I S3 



" Game Birds of Sweden and Norway," " has occasionally given rise in Sweden to the notion that it is 

 actually 'possessed.'" "About this time last year," Lieutenant Jack relates, "whilst the cottager 

 Anders Pehrsson, of Bengtsbo, in the province of Westmarland, was collecting brushwood in the 

 forest, a Capercali cock, without showing the smallest apprehension, came and alighted on the ground 

 immediately near him. The old belief in Troll-Foglar, or enchanted birds, once so common, and 

 which is still retained by a portion of the peasantry, could not but have its effect on the man from 

 such clear and conclusive evidence. With this crotchet in his head, he therefore hastened to the 

 Klockare, or clerk of the parish, named Pettersson, who was also its oracle, residing at a distance of 

 about an English mile from the spot, and related to him what had happened. Pettersson, who 

 professed not to have the most distant apprehension of the Troll and their emissaries, at once put 

 his gun in order, and, accompanied by Pehrsson, repaired to the spot indicated, which the Capercali 

 had not yet quitted. The Klockare advanced to within a few paces of the bird, and pulled the 

 trigger, but the gun ' clicked.' It was cocked a second and a third time, though '.vith the same result. 

 The flint is now hammered, and fire at length produced, though confined to a flash in the pan. The 

 ardour of the sportsman rose to its highest pitch. How provoking ! neither pricker nor other 

 instrument to clear the touch-hole. These had been forgotten in the hurry of departure from home. 

 As a substitute a pointed piece of wood is had recourse to ; but it breaks short off in the touch-hole, 

 and only makes matters worse. All this while the Capercali remains motionless, a quiet spectator of 

 the enemy's proceedings. The Klockare, on his part, gazes at the bird, and that with a feeling 

 somewhat akin to awe. He is on the point of sharing his comrade's htX\^i'm.fortrollning, or enchant- 

 ment. Once more, however, he musters up courage, and, renewing his endeavours, finally succeeds in 

 clearing the touch-hole ; fresh priming is then put in the pan, but when all is in readiness, and he is 

 prepared to discharge his piece, the bird, which hitherto had not budged an inch from the spot, 

 suddenly takes wing. Our Nimrod is just about to give vent to his feelings, and pour maledictions 

 on his villainous weapon, when, to his joy, he sees the bird alight on a tree within an easy distance. 

 To place the gun to his shoulder and fire is now the work of a moment, and to die undisguised 

 delight, not to say astonishment, of both our doughty knights of the chase, the old blunderbuss went 

 off with a loud bang, and the Troll-bird gave up the ghost" 



" In Scandinavia," continues Mr. Lloyd, " the Capercali is in considerable request for the table. 

 It is more palatable, however, during the autumnal months, when it lives for the most part on berries 

 and the like, than in the winter, when its food consists of pine-leaves, which give it a somewhat 

 resinous flavour. In Wermeland and the adjacent country it is a standing dish at 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 deaths 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." 



The HEATH COCKS {Lyrurus) represent a group of slenderly-formed birds, possessing short, 

 arched, and rounded wings, the third quill of which exceeds the rest in length. The tail, composed 

 of eighteen feathers, is in the female very slightly excised at its extremity, but in the male is so 

 deeply forked as to present somewhat the form of a lyre. The powerful beak is of moderate size : 

 the foot has its exterior and inner toes of equal length, and is completely covered with feathers. The 

 very glossy plumage exhibited by the members of this group may be regarded as their most 

 distinguishing characteristic, the male in particular being remarkable for the resplendent brilliance 

 that adorns his feathers. 



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