LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 41 



most often heard about its breeding grounds, but when much excited 

 or alarmed, it indulges in loud, shrill, piercing screams, as it darts 

 down upon the intruder. When hovering in large flocks over a 

 school of fish or other tempting feast it becomes very noisy, uttering 

 loud, harsh cries, somewhat resembling the notes of the gull-billed 

 tern. Doctor Townsend adds the following notes: 



Besides tlie crj-, which recalls its ntune Kit-ti-icakc, I have noted down the 

 syllables Ka-ukc; sharp and piercing Ki, Ki, Ki; rapidly repeated and liarsU 

 rattling Kaa, Kaa, Kae, Kae, and Kaak Kaak. 



The gentle kittiwake is a highly gregarious and sociable species. 

 Among the various sea birds, with which it is intimately associated 

 on its breeding grounds, it is a harmless and a friendly neighbor. 

 It does not seem to molest the eggs or young of the other species at 

 all and it has no enemies among them. At other seasons it is often 

 persecuted by the jaegers, the relentless pursuers of all the smaller 

 gulls and terns, the highway robbers of the northern seas. The 

 worst enemy of the kittiwake is man. In winter, when these gulls 

 are abundant on the New England coast, they are shot in large 

 numbers. They are tame and unsuspicious, gathering, like terns, in 

 large flocks over a fallen companion, making it easy for the gunner 

 to kill as many as he chooses. They may easily be attracted about the 

 fisherman's boat bj^ throwing overboard cod livers or other refuse, 

 where they are easily shot and may often be caught on a baited hook. 

 Their bodies are used for food or for bait and their plumage is, or 

 was, sold for millinery purposes; but often they are killed in purely 

 wanton sport. Macgillivray (1852) says of the way these birds have 

 been killed on the British coast : 



Parties are formed on our eastern coast for the sole purpose of shooting 

 them ; and I have «een a person station himself on the top of tiie kittiwake cliff 

 of the Isle of May, and shoot incessantly for several hours, without so much 

 as afterwards picking up a single individual of the many killed and maimed 

 birds with which the smooth water was strevi'n beneath.. 



Fall. — Tlie fall migration starts early ; that is, the birds move 

 away from their breeding grounds early and begin to work down 

 the coast in August and September. Dr. Charles W. Townsend 

 (1907) saw about 5,000 kitti wakes at the mouth of Hamilton Inlet, 

 Labrador, on July 18, 1900. He describes their behavior as follows: 



At Hamilton Inlet thousands of kittiwakes covered the water, and as we 

 steamed on they rose in bodies of 500 or more and whirled about like gusts 

 of snow driven by the wind, their pure white plumage lit up by the rays of the 

 setting sun. Silent for the most part, they occasionally emitted cries of kae kae, 

 or ka-ake, and at times one could imagine the syllables of kitthvake. On our 

 return trip we ran into a flock of nearly the same size near Cape Harrison. 

 The appearance of a snowstorm here was more perfect, for there was a thick 

 fog bank, on the edge of which the kittiwakes played. Tlie sun shining on 

 the birds before the fog shut them out was very striking. They were occa- 



