SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS. 221 



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

 but of this Family, to which they have belong'd 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, [chap. 6. §§. 36, 40, 42] about 

 J a mile S.W. of Norbury Church, but it being their strange 

 quality (as the whole Family will tell you, to whom I refer 

 the Reader for the following relation) to be disturb'd and 

 remove upon the death of the head of it, as they did with-in 

 memory, upon the death of James Skrymsher, Esq., to Oflfley- 

 Moss near Woods-Eves, which Moss though containing two 

 gentlemans land, yet (which is very remarkable) the Pewits 

 did discern 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, w^here they continued to the death of the 

 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 OfHey-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 tw^o 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 Sr. 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 scare above 

 six, which come as it were as harbingers to the rest, to see 

 whether the Hasts or Islands in the pooles (upon which they 

 build their neasts) 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 hasts, and stay all day, but are gon 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 heath and rushes, making them but shallow, and lajdng 



