410 THE GULL. 



they at this gentleman's death, that, notwithstanding this 

 tie of the law of nature, which has heen 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 

 gentleman'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 

 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 weeks' sitting, the young ones are hatcht, 

 and about a month after are almost ready to flye, which 



