BLACK-HEADED GULL. 69 



in our .ears as household words,' the one as much so as the 

 other: there are several Gulleries, places so called where these 

 Gulls breed, and I proceed to enumerate the principal of them. 



A famous resort for these birds is Twigmoor, near Glandford 

 Brigg, in Lincolnshire, the estate of Sir John Nelthorpe, 

 Bart., where as many as from ten to twenty thousand may 

 be seen in the breeding-season. 



Dr. Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, gives a curious, 

 not to say strange or marvellous, account of their annual 

 visit to that county, for a copy of which, as follows, I am 

 indebted to Thomas George Bonney, Esq., of Churchdale 

 House, near Rugeley: 



'But the strangest whole-footed water-fowle that frequents 

 this county is the 'Larus cinereus,' Ornithologi, the 'Larus 

 cinereus tertius,' Aldrovandi, and the 'Cepphus' of Gesner and 

 Turner; in some counties called the Black-cap, in others the 

 Sea or Mire Crow; here the Pewit; which being of the 

 migratory kind, come annually to certain pooles in the estate 

 of the Eight Worshipfull Sir Charles Skrymsher, Knight, to 

 build and breed, and to no other estate in or neer the county, 

 but of this family, to which they have belonged 'ultra 

 hominum memoriam,' and never moved from it, though they 

 have changed their station often. They anciently came to 

 the old Pewit poole above mentioned, about half a mile S.W. 

 of Norbury Church, but it being their strange quality (as 

 the whole family will tell you, to whom I refere the reader for 

 the following relation) to be disturbed and remove upon the 

 death of the head of the family, as they did within memory, 

 upon the death of James Skrymsher, Esq., to Offley Moss, 

 near Woods Eves, which Moss, though containing two 

 gentlemen's land, yet (which is very remarkable) the Pewits 

 did disern betwixt the one and the other, and build only 

 on the land of the next heir, John Skrymsher, Esq., so wholy 

 are they addicted to this family. 



At which Moss they continued about three years, and then 

 removed to the old Pewit poole again, where they continued 

 to the death of the late said John Skrymsher, Esq., which 

 happening on the 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 notwithstanding this tye of 

 the Law of Nature, which has ever been held to be universal 

 and perpetual, they left their nest and eggs; and though they 

 made some attempts of laying again at OiHey Moss, yet they 



