442 THE GULL. 



driven into the ground in a circle, and interwoven 

 with broom and other raddles; in which manner there 

 have been taken of them in one morning, fifty dozens 

 at a driving, which, at 5s. per dozen, (the ancient price 

 for them) comes to 12/. 12s.; but at several drifts 

 that have been anciently made in the same morning, 

 there have been as many taken as have been sold for 

 301. So that some years the profit of them has amounted 

 to fifty or three-score pounds, besides what the generous 

 proprietor usually presents his relations, and the nobility 

 and gentry of the county withall, which he constantly 

 does in a plentifull manner, sending them to their houses 

 in crates alive, so that feeding them with livers and other 

 entrals of beasts, they may kill them at what distance of 

 time they please, according as occasions present them- 

 selves, they being accounted a good dish at the most 

 plentifull tables. 



" But they commonly appoint three days of driving 

 them, within fourteen days, or thereabout, of the second 

 or third of June ; which, while they are doing, some have 

 observed a certain old one that seems to be somewhat 

 more concerned than the rest, being clamorous, and 

 striking down upon the very heads of the men, which 

 has given ground of suspicion that they have some go- 

 vernment amongst them, and that this is then* prince, 

 that is so much concerned for its subjects. 



" And 'tis further observed, that when there is great 

 plenty of them, the Lent corn of the country is so much 

 the better, and so the cow pastures too, by reason they 

 pick up all the worms, and the fern flyes, which though 

 bred in the fern, yet nip and feed on the young corn and 

 grass and hinder their growth." 



We come next to the largest sea-bird that flies, the 

 Wandering Albatross (Diomedea, exulans), of which we 

 have already partially spoken; but large as they are to 

 the eye, they are not so in reality, for so abundantly 

 covered are they with feathers, that when plucked, they 

 appear not above half their original size, and when 



