dead and disabled at the foot of the lamp-posts, against which they had dashed.

Away to the bonny open sea, to dash and sport with the waves, to forget the confined inland life, and the troubles of a family, in the cool salt breeze, and the sparkling ocean; who would not envy them their holiday?

At the time I visited the mere the business of hatching was over, and the number of gulls had in some degree lessened, but the number remaining was sufficiently great to excite wonderment and surprise. We rowed quietly through the yellow waterlilies, disturbing enormous carp, which were basking in the heat, descending quietly round corners on unsuspecting gulls which took to wing with a tremendous scurry, and noting carefully the leading features of the novel sight. In addition to the gulls, grebes great and small, wild ducks, snipe, water-rails, coots, and water-hens breed in numbers, and weasels, rats, and other vermin swarm, attracted by the abundance of animal food. When the gulls have all left, the silence must, one would imagine, be as oppressive to the keeper as the silence of a watermill, when it is stopped, is to a miller. We could have passed many an hour on and about the mere, for it was very beautiful. There was the calm blue water, with the golden lilies floating on its surface, like stars of

light, and the white lilies in motionless flocks as of the gulls themselves at eventide; the lacing foliage of the encircling trees casting welcome shade, the songs of many a warbler, the wheeling gulls, and the luxuriant vegetation of the islands, all united to please the eye and ear; but the birds were shining brilliantly white against the deep blue black of a thunder-cloud and the sultry ominous silence that came over all warned us to be off and away from the tempest, and with one last, long look, we bade adieu to Scoulton Gullery.

:

As a rider to the foregoing sketch, I think it may be interesting to the reader if I quote an older account of the habits of these birds. It is taken from Morris's "British Birds," where it is stated to be quoted from Dr. Plot's "History of Staffordshire."

"But the strangest whole-footed water-fowl 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 Right Worshipfull Sir Charles Skrymsher, Knight, to build and breed, and to no other estate in or near 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 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, 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 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 number 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 sticks, but of leaves and rushes, making them but shallow, and laying generally but four eggs, three and five more rarely, which are about the bigness of a small hen's egg.

"The hafts or islands are prepared for them between Michlemas and Christmas, by cutting down the reeds and rushes, and pulling them aside in the nooks 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 hatched, and about a month after are already 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 bank 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 and a yard length or somewhat better, with small stakes driven into the ground in a circle, and interwoven with broom and other raddle. In which manner there have been taken of them in one morning fifty dozens at a driving.