390 THE GULL. 



eve to our Lady-day, the very time when they are laying their eggs ; 

 yet so concerned were they at this gentleman's death, that, notwith- 

 standing this tie of the law of nature, which has been ever held to 

 be universal and perpetual, they left their nests and eggs ; and 

 though they made some attempts of laying again at Offley Moss, 

 yet they were still so disturbed that they bred not at all that year. 



" The next year after they went to Aqualat, 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 pro- 

 priety, 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 numbers 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 stickes, but heath and rushes, making them but 

 shallow, and laying generally but four eggs, three and five more 

 rarely, which are about the bignes of a small Hen egg. The hafts or 

 islands are prepared for them between Michaelmas and Christmas, 

 by cutting down the reeds and rushes, and putting them aside in the 

 nookes 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 Aveeks' sitting, the young ones arehatcht, and about 

 a month after are almost 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 banke 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 

 bow of the net, which are built round, about three yards diameter, 



