244 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



habitually do. There was a considerable breeding 

 colony of Kittiwakes in Scilly at the time of my 

 visit in 1852, and, if I remember rightly, there were 

 some breeding-places on the south coast of Cornwall 

 at that time ; but I never met with this species 

 anywhere in such immense numbers as in Clew 

 Bay, on the coast of Mayo, in the summer of 1854, 

 when the sea and air between Westport harbour 

 and Clare Island were alive with Kittiwakes from 

 dawn till dusk ; a vast number of these birds breed 

 on the island just named, and, I believe, also on 

 the stupendous cliffs of Achill. A great number of 

 Kittiwakes frequent the coast of Devon between 

 Torbay and the Start Point in July and August, 

 but with a solitary exception I could not discover 

 that they breed in that locality ; towards the end 

 of June 1876, however, we found a nest on a ledge 

 of an isolated pinnacle known as the Cod Rock, 

 at a very short distance from Berry Head ; this nest 

 contained three young birds nearly ready to fly, 

 as, indeed, they did, within a few days after 

 we discovered them. I was constantly about this 

 locality in the late summers of 1880, 1881, 1882, 

 and 1883, but although, as I have above stated, 

 there were a great many Kittiwakes about, there 

 was no sign of any of them having nested, and 

 the local fishermen all assured me not only that 

 they had never known of an instance of a nest of 

 this bird in the neighbourhood, but also that I must 

 have been mistaken in 1876, However, as we could 

 almost reach the young birds in their nest with a 

 boat-hook, and the parent birds flew anxiously about 

 uttering their unmistakable cry of Jcittiweek^ I had 

 no doubt whatever on the subject, especially as a 



