86 



Range in. Great Britain, — The Kittiwake is a thoroughly in- 

 digenous species with us, being found on all our coasts. In 

 summer it resorts to certain headlands and rocky islands to 

 breed, and in some places it does so in enormous numbers. 

 W^ell -known colonies of the Kittiwake are those of Lundy Island, 

 the Fames, Flamborough, the Bass Rock, and they are especially 

 numerous in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles. In Ireland, Mr. 

 Ussher says, the Kittiwake breeds, often in large colonies, on 

 the precipices of the coasts and islands of Donegal, Antrim, 

 Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, and Sligo. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The present species is found 

 in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions, from the farthest point 

 yet visited by man to the north of Spitsbergen and up to 8i° 

 40' in Smith Sound, down to the north-west of France, the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic side of North America, 

 and the Kuril Islands in the Pacific. 



In winter it visits the Mediterranean, and the inland waters 

 of Europe down to the Caspian, the Canaries, Bermuda, and 

 both sides of America to about 35° N. Lat. The record 

 of circumpolar continuity is complete between the North Cape 

 and Bering Strait, by way of Siberia and the islands to the 

 north, while in Arctic America it is only defective as regards 

 the small interval between Prince Albeit Island and Point 

 Barrow (//. Sannde7's). 



Habit'i. — Many descriptions of the colonies of Kittiwakes have 

 been published in works on British Ornithology. One of the 

 best accounts of some of the great assemblages of this Gull is 

 that of the late Dr. Alfred Brehm, in his essay on the 

 " Bird-Bergs of Lapland." * He writes : — ■ 



^' Different again is the life and activity on the bergs chosen 

 as brooding-places by the Kittiwakes. Such a hill is the 

 promontory Swartholm, high up in the north between the 

 Laxen and the Porsanger fjords, not far from the North Cape. 

 I knew^ already how these Gulls appear on their breeding-places. 

 Faber, with his excellent knovdedge of the birds of the North, 

 has depicted it, as usual, in a few vivid words : 



* "From North Pole to Equator: Studies of Wild Life and Scenes 

 in many lands." Enc;l:sh Translation, by M. R. Thomson and J. 4. 

 Thomson. (Blackie & Son : 1896. 



