520 RISSA TRIDACTYLA. 



from their nests, and those wliich have left them presently 

 return when the boat has advanced a short way. 



The Kittiwake feeds on small fishes, Avhich it picks from 

 the water, hovering with elevated w'ings, as well as occa- 

 sionally Crustacea, small shell-fish, and other marine animals, 

 Avhich it procures along the shores. It walks little, and not 

 with ease, owing to the shortness of its legs ; rests either 

 standing or lying, like the other hirds of this group ; asso- 

 ciates occasionally with Gulls and Terns ; is of a gentle dis- 

 position, social, and altogether amiable. I have killed a few, 

 it is true, and caused others to be killed ; but of a creature 

 so beautiful, so pure, so simple and unsuspecting, I certainly 

 shall never shoot another individual. This gentleness of the 

 Kittiwake, however, like that of hvmian beings, of whom 

 some are very gentle and almost altogether lovely, renders it 

 liable to be much harassed by the Teasers, which force it to 

 disgorge its food, and occasionally by the gluttonous Gulls, 

 wliich carry off its young. 



With us it is scarcely ever seen inland ; nor does it even 

 search the maritime pastures or the ploughed fields along 

 the shores for worms and larvae, like the other smaller species 

 of its family. It is an ocean bird, that loves not the haunts 

 of man. It flies with a rapid and constant beat of its curved 

 wings ; glides, and Avheels, and hovers over the smooth sea, 

 or skims lightly over the high Avaves, descending into the 

 furrows, and rising buoyantly to surmount the advancing 

 ridge. Its cry is clear and rather sharp, but mellow, and 

 resembles the syllables kittiaa or kittiweea, whence its 

 common name of Kittiwake, or, on the eastern coast of the 

 middle division of Scotland, Kittiweeak. 



In summer this species is dispersed over the arctic regions 

 of both continents, and in winter advances southward. How 

 far it proceeds along the European co;ists has not, I believe, 

 been determined. Mr. Audubon states that, during the au- 

 tumnal and winter months, it occurs along the whole of the 

 extensive coast of the United States, he having found it 

 there from Maine to the mouths of the ^Mississippi. 



The eggs, two or three in number, are of a broadly oval 

 form, from two inches to two-twelfths more in length, an 



