410 
THE GULL. 
they at this gentleman’s death, that, notwithstanding this 
tie of the law of nature, which has been ever held to he 
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 
