296 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



distinguished by its small size, its dark colour, and 

 short tail. It weighs but 3 oz., or little more than 

 a Jack Snipe. 



KITTIWAKE. Rissa tridactyla, Linnaeus. PL 34, figs. 

 5, 6, 6a. Length, 15-5 in, ; bill, 1-75 in. ; wing, 12 in. ; 

 tarsus, 1*4 in. 



A local resident ; to a certain extent migratory, 

 quitting its breeding haunts as soon as the young 

 are able to fly, and coming into the estuaries of large 

 rivers, up which both old and young often ascend 

 for some distance. 



Mr. Howard Saunders has noted colonies of the 

 Kittiwake Gull on Lundy Island, off North Devon, 

 the Scilly Islands, Wales, the Isle of Man, Flam- 

 borough Head, and the Fame Islands, all of which 

 I have likewise seen ; on the east coast of Scotland, 

 at the Bass Rock, which I visited on my way to the 

 Fame Islands, the Isle of May, and Dunbuy in 

 Aberdeenshire ; while in the Orkneys, Shetlands, 

 and Hebrides, thousands of these birds whiten the 

 precipices. The "gullery" on the Shiant Isles is 

 said to be the most extensive in Great Britain. 



On the loftier headlands of Ireland, especially 

 in the north and west, the Kittiwake is extremely 

 common in summer. Mr. E. Lloyd Patterson men- 

 tions it as found breeding in enormous numbers at 

 Horn Head, in Donegal, on Rathlin Island, and on 

 Ailsa Craig ('' Birds of Belfast Lough," p. 136). 



On the Yorkshire coast, at Smeeton, Bempton, 

 and Flamborough, Kittiwakes were formerly very 

 numerous in the breeding season ; but during the 



