of the law, for the so-called sportsman stealthily to draw nigh, and with well-aimed gun to murder the principal performer in the scene. The hen makes an artless nest on the ground, and lays therein from seven to nine or even more eggs. The young are able to fly soon after they are hatched, and towards the end of summer and beginning of autumn, from feeding on the fruit and leaves of the bilberries and other similar plants, which form the undercovert of the forests, get into excellent condition and become good eating. With the first heavy falls of snow they betake themselves to the trees, and then, feeding on the pine-leaves, their flesh speedily acquires so strong a flavour of turpentine as to be distasteful to most palates. The usual method of pursuing this species on the continent of Europe is by encouraging a trained dog to range the forest and spring the birds, which then perch on the trees; while he is baying at the foot their attention is so much attracted by him that they permit the near approach of his master, who thus obtains a more or less easy shot. A considerable number, however, are also snared. Hybrids are very frequently produced between the capercally and the black grouse (T. tetrix), and the offspring has been described by some authors under the name of T. medius, as though a distinct species. (A. N.)
CAPERN, EDWARD (1819–1894), English poet, was born at Tiverton, Devonshire, on the 21st of January 1819. From an early age he worked in a lace factory, but owing to failing eyesight he had to abandon this occupation in 1847 and he was in dire distress until he secured an appointment to be “the Rural Postman of Bideford,” by which name he is usually known. He occupied his leisure in writing occasional poetry which struck the popular fancy. Collected in a volume and published by subscription in 1856, it received the warm praise of the reviews and many distinguished people. Poems, by Edward Capern, was followed by Ballads and Songs (1858), The Devonshire Melodist (a collection of the author’s songs, some of them to his own music) and Wayside Warbles (1865), and resulted in a civil list pension being granted him by Lord Palmerston. He died on the 5th of June 1894.
CAPERNAUM (Καπερναούμ; probably, “the village of Naḥum”), an ancient city of Galilee. More than any other place, it was the home of Jesus after he began his mission; there he preached, called several of his disciples, and did many works, but without meeting with much response from the inhabitants, over whom he pronounced the heavy denunciation:—“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell.” The site of the city has been a matter of much dispute,—one party, headed by Dr E. Robinson, maintaining an identification with Khān Minyeh at the north-west corner of the Sea of Galilee, and another, represented especially by Sir C. W. Wilson, supporting the claims of Tell Hūm, midway between Khān Minyeh and the mouth of the Jordan. Khān Minyeh is beautifully situated in a “fertile plain formed by the retreat of the mountains about the middle of the western shore” of the Sea of Galilee. Its ruins are not very extensive, though they may have been despoiled for building the great Saracenic Khan from which they take their name. In the neighbourhood is a water-source, Ain et-Tābighah, an Arabic corruption of Heptapegon or Seven Springs (referred to by Josephus as being near Capernaum). Tell Hūm lies about 3 m. north of Khān Minyeh, and its ruins, covering an area of “half a mile long by a quarter wide,” prove it to have been the site of no small town. It must be admitted that if it be not Capernaum it is impossible to say what ancient place it represents. But it is doubtful whether Tell Hūm can be considered as a corruption of Kefr Naḥum, the Semitic name which the Greek represents: and there is not here, as at Khān Minyeh, any spring that can be equated to the Heptapegon of Josephus. On the whole the probabilities of the two sites seem to balance, and it is practically impossible without further discoveries to decide between them. The sites of the neighbouring cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin are probably to be sought respectively at El-Bateiha, a grassy plain in the north-east corner of the lake, and at Kerazeh, 2 m. north of Tell Hūm. According to the so-called Pseudo-Methodius there was a tradition that Antichrist would be born at Chorazin, educated at Bethsaida and rule at Capernaum—hence the curse of Jesus upon these cities.
On the site of Capernaum see especially W. Sanday in Journal of Theological Studies, vol. v. p. 42. (R. A. S. M.)
CAPERS, the unexpanded flower-buds of Capparis spinosa, prepared with vinegar for use as a pickle. The caper plant is a trailing shrub, belonging to the Mediterranean region, resembling in habit the common bramble, and having handsome flowers of a pinkish white, with four petals, and numerous long tassel-like stamens. The leaves are simple and ovate, with spiny stipules. The plant is cultivated in Sicily and the south of France; and in commerce capers are valued according to the period at which the buds are gathered and preserved. The finest are the young tender buds called “nonpareil,” after which, gradually increasing in size and lessening in value, come “superfine,” “fine,” “capucin” and “capot.” Other species of Capparis are similarly employed in various localities, and in some cases the fruit is pickled.
CAPET, the name of a family to which, for nearly nine centuries, the kings of France, and many of the rulers of the most powerful fiefs in that country, belonged, and which mingled with several of the other royal races of Europe. The original significance of the name remains in dispute, but the first of the family to whom it was applied was Hugh, who was elected king of the Franks in 987. The real founder of the house, however, was Robert the Strong (q.v.), who received from Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, the countships of Anjou and Blois, and who is sometimes called duke, as he exercised some military authority in the district between the Seine and the Loire. According to Aimoin of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and the chronicler, Richer, he was a Saxon, but historians question this statement. Robert’s two sons, Odo or Eudes, and Robert II., succeeded their father successively as dukes, and, in 887, some of the Franks chose Odo as their king. A similar step was taken, in 922, in the case of Robert II., this too marking the increasing irritation felt at the weakness of the Carolingian kings. When Robert died in 923, he was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Rudolph, duke of Burgundy, and not by his son Hugh, who is known in history as Hugh the Great, duke of France and Burgundy, and whose domain extended from the Loire to the frontiers of Picardy. When Louis V., king of the Franks, died in 987, the Franks, setting aside the Carolingians, passed over his brother Charles, and elected Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the Great, as their king, and crowned him at Reims. Avoiding the pretensions which had been made by the Carolingian kings, the Capetian kings were content, for a time, with a more modest position, and the story of the growth of their power belongs to the history of France. They had to combat the feudal nobility, and later, the younger branches of the royal house established in the great duchies, and the main reason for the permanence of their power was, perhaps, the fact that there were few minorities among them. The direct line ruled in France from 987 to 1328, when, at the death of King Charles IV., it was succeeded by the younger, or Valois, branch of the family. Philip VI., the first of the Valois kings, was a son of Charles I., count of Valois and grandson of King Philip III. (see Valois). The Capetian-Valois dynasty lasted until 1498, when Louis, duke of Orleans, became king as Louis XII., on the death of King Charles VIII. (see Orleans). Louis XII. dying childless, the house of Valois-Angoulême followed from Francis I. to the death of Henry III. in 1589 (see Angoulême), when the last great Capetian family, the Bourbons (q.v.) mounted the throne.
Scarcely second to the royal house is the branch to which belonged the dukes of Burgundy. In the 10th century the duchy of Burgundy fell into the hands of Hugh the Great, father of Hugh Capet, on whose death in 956 it passed to his son Otto, and, in 965, to his son Henry. In 1032 Robert, the second son of Robert the Pious, king of the Franks, and grandson of Hugh Capet, founded the first ducal house, which ruled until 1361. For two years the duchy was in the hands of the crown, but in 1363, the second ducal house, also Capetian, was founded by Philip the Bold, son of John II., king of France. This branch
