KITTIWAKE GULL 449 
compact mass. The outer wall is composed chiefly of mud, 
which adheres to the ledge and fits on it in a most secure 
manner. The dimensions of the nests vary in accordance 
with the available platform space. 
The owners spend a considerable part of the day guard- 
ing their homes! (space being at a premium, I presume), 
for six weeks or more prior to hatching. The lowest nests 
are often but a few feet from the base of the cliff, and the 
uppermost ones may be two or three hundred feet above. 
I have not seen many nests placed at the summit. 
The eggs, two to three in number, are greyish-white 
or dull stone-colour, blotched and zoned with lighter and 
darker shades of brown. 
Incubation begins in May, but is not general until the 
end of that month or early in June. 
The Kittiwake 1s an extremely abundant breeding-species 
round the British coast, resorting to islands as well as to 
the mainland. Multitudes of birds compose some colonies, 
and may be seen on the cliffs of the Orkneys, Shetlands, and 
Hebrides. The Shiant Islands possess probably the largest 
assemblages of Kittiwakes in Great Britain. 
On the Irish coast may be mentioned Rathlin Island, 
Horn Head, and Tormore; the latter is described by Mr. 
Ussher as ‘‘a colossal pillar-like rock off the western 
peninsula”’ of Donegal. On the cliffs of Moher, co. Clare, 
Kittiwakes breed several hundred feet above the sea-level. 
Smaller colonies are too numerous to mention ; on Ireland’s 
Kye and on Lambay Island, on the east coast of Dublin, I 
have seen them consisting of as few as seventy pairs. 
Geographical distribution.—Vhis species has a remark- 
ably wide geographical distribution. Abroad it breeds in 
countless throngs in Spitzbergen, Norway, Iceland, the 
Faroes, and southward along the European sea-board to the 
north-west coast of France. 
On the American Continent it is found nesting as far 
' The detestable practice of shooting Kittiwakes at their breeding- 
homes should receive the most open public condemnation. I quote 
the words of Mr. Saunders, which clearly point out how these unfortunate 
creatures were nefariously victimised. He says the eggs “are seldom 
laid until the latter part of May, so that many of the young could 
searcely fly—while others were still in the nest—when the original Sea- 
Birds Protection Act expired on August 1st; consequently thousands 
were formerly slaughtered to provide plumes for ladies’ hats” (‘ Manual 
of British Birds, 2nd Edition, p. 684). 
29 
