OLD CAILLIE

ARNT HVIDSTEN

WILLIAM HODGE AND COMPANY LTD.
1949

"This typescript has enthralled me and impressed me. It has enthralled me as a reader by its colour: it has impressed me as a naturalist by its accuracy. . . this is excellent. It should find a wide public in this country." —BRIAN VESEY-FITZ GERALD.

This the story of a hen capercailzie in the forests and mountains of Norway. It tells of her courtship in the "blue days" of spring, of how she makes her nest and hatches out her chicks, and of all the dangers from "preying beak and preying fang" of eagle-owl, stoat, pine-marten and fox, with which she has to contend. And then there is man who hunts her in the spring and late autumn.

It is an exciting, moving tale told in the simple vivid language of the countryman-poet. And there is beauty, too, in its intimate descriptions of the author's native mountains and forest.

There is a rare, unusual flavour about this fascinating book. The author has one of those natural talents that sooner or later must find recognition, a talent not only for observing and writing, but also for drawing, as the illustrations show.

22 x 14 cm. viii + 172 pp.

Very good condition. Piece missing from the edge of the dust jacket but the book itself is very clean and tidy.