42 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



sionally plunging for capelins, at times disappearing entirely under water 

 with a splash. One could often be seen flying with a fish hanging by one end 

 from its bill. A jaeger sudd-enly appeared on the scene, and the twisting and 

 turning of pursuer and pursued was interesting to see. The kittiwake finally 

 dropped his prey, and the jaeger settled on the water to pick it up. 



On my way south along the Labrador coast on August 21, 1912, 

 I saw large numbers of old and young kittiwakes near Makkovik 

 and Ragged Islands, far south of their breeding grounds. Mr. 

 Lucien M. Turner says of their habits on the Labrador coast : 



Scores and hundreds of the kittiwake gull were observed on the Labrador 

 coast in the early part of July, 1882. They were most numerous in the Arctic 

 current bearing icebergs, on which these birds at times assembled in thou- 

 sands as the mass of ice towered at times over 200 feet high and presented an 

 area of over half a mile square on the top of it. Here the birds sat com- 

 pactly, slowly moving to the southward ; they probably congregated during 

 these times after having gorged themselves with capelins and lance fishes to 

 allow the process of digestion to be completed. A single rifle shot reverberating 

 against the wall of ice or a ball projecte<l in the midst of these birds was 

 sufl^lcieut to startle the entire community into flight, and upon which they 

 would lazily circle round and round the vessel or sway back and forth across 

 her wake, always at a provoking distance, until one would be dropped while 

 on wing with a rifle ball. The living birds wheeled over their dead companion 

 In angry curiosity as they clamored their rattling cry. 



Winter. — The kittiwake does not become common on the Massa- 

 chusetts coast until about the middle of October, after which it is 

 common off our coasts all winter, where it is known as the " winter 

 gull," " frost gull," or " pinny owl." Dr. Charles W. Townsend 

 (1905) says of its winter habits: 



The kittiwake is an offshore gull, one that is to be found especially about 

 fishing vessels in winter, gleaning the waves for the refuse which is always to 

 be found in the neighborhood of these boats. In my notes of a trip to Nova 

 Scotia from Boston, in Decem'ber, 1883, I have entered that they were very 

 abundant everywhere off the coast. Off Kockport in winter, kittiwakes begin 

 to be common 2 or 3 miles from land, and are generally abundant on the 

 fishing grounds, 8 or 10 miles out. They may, however, be frequently seen 

 from the shore, especially if the day be stormy and the shore an open one. 

 They often visit the little harbor of Roekport with its wealth of fish gurry. 

 They also fly occasionally over the beaches, and under these circumstances I 

 have had no difliculty in shooting them for specimens, as, unlike the herring 

 gull, they do not hesitate to fly within gunshot. I have never seen them in 

 the tidal estuaries. 



Mr. Walter IT. Ilich has sent me the following notes on the be- 

 havior of the kittiwake or " winter bird," as it is called, on Georges 

 Banks : 



As might be guessed from the name, it Is during the coldest weather that 

 this bird is most abundant, and at this season, so the writer was informed, 

 not infrequently they became so tame as to perch in rows upon the main booms 

 of the vessels on frosty mornings, awaiting their breakfasts. 



