70 
BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
were still so disturbed that they bred not at all that year. 
The next year after they went to Arpialat, to another gentle¬ 
man’s estate of the same family, (where though tempted to 
stay with all the care imaginable,) yet continued there but 
two years, and then returned again to another poole of the 
next heir of John Skrymsher, deceased, called Shebben poole, 
in the Parish of High Offley, where they continue to this 
day, and seem to be the propriety, as I may say, (though 
a wild-fowle,) of the Right Worshipfull Sir Charles Skrymsher, 
Knight, their present Lord and Master. 
But being of the migratory kind their first appearance is 
not till about the latter end of February, and then in number 
scarce above six, which come, as it were, as harbingers to the 
rest, to see whether the hafts or islands in the pooles, (upon 
which they build their nests,) be prepared for them, but these 
never so much as lighten, but fly over the poole, scarce staying 
an hour; about the sixth of March following there comes a 
pretty considerable flight, of a hundred or more, and then they 
alight on the hafts, and stay all day, but are gone again at 
night. About our Lady day or sooner, in a forward spring, 
they come to stay for good, otherwise not till the beginning 
of April, when they build their nests, which they make not 
of sticks, but of leaves and rushes, making them but shallow, 
and laying generally but four eggs, three and five more 
rarely, which are about the bigness of a small hen’s egg. 
The hafts or islands are prepared for them between Michlemas 
and Christmas, by cutting down the reeds and rushes, and 
pulling them aside in the nooks and corners of the hafts, and 
in the valleys, to make them level, for should they be permitted 
to rot on the islands the Pewits would not endure them. 
After three weeks’ sitting the young ones are hatched, and 
about a month after are ready to flye, which usually happens 
on the third of June, when the proprietor of the poole orders 
them to be driven and catch’d, the Gentry comeing in from 
all parts to see the sport; the manner thus,—they pitch a 
rabbit-net on the bank side, in the most convenient place over 
against the hafts, the net in the middle being about ten yards 
from the side, but close at the ends in the-manner of a bow; 
then six or seven men wade into the poole beyond the Pewits 
over against the net, with long staves, and drive them from 
the hafts, whence they all swim to the bank side, and landing, 
run like Lapwings into the net, where people standing ready, 
take them up and put them into two penns made within the 
