446 LARID.E. 



Larus hj/bernus, or L. rissa, which was brought up there 

 about twenty-seven years ago. There is a small piece of 

 water which it used to frequent, but for many years it has 

 nearly forsaken this, and spends its time, either sitting upon 

 the rails of one or two cottages to which it confines its visits, 

 or flying at liberty around the country. Every spring, when 

 the breeding-season arrives, it leaves the parish, which is in- 

 land, and pairing with one of the wild birds, inhabits the 

 white cliffs on the coast,* whence it returns again alone when 

 the breeding-season is over. It is so tame at other times 

 with those whom it knows, that it will come into their 

 cottages and eat out of their hands, but will not allow itself 

 to be approached thus closely by strangers."" 



The Kittiwake breeds high up on rocky cliffs, and is found 

 by the egg- collectors to select very narrow ledges. The 

 nests are formed of sea-weeds and are generally placed very 

 close together. Three eggs is the most usual number in 

 each nest : these are two inches two lines and a half in 

 length, by one inch and seven lines in breadth ; of a stone 

 colour, tinged with olive, thickly spotted with ash-grey, and 

 two shades of light brown. The principal food of the Kitti- 

 wake is the small surface-swimming fry of fishes, and other 

 soft marine animals. 



Besides breeding on many of the high ranges of cliffs along 

 the southern line of our shore, this bird breeds also on many 

 of the high rocky promontories on the eastern coast, such as 

 Flamborough Head, the lofty cliffs of Scarborough, some of 

 the Farn Islands, St. Abb's Head, the Bass Rock, and some 

 parts of the coast of Aberdeen, as well as Orkney and 



* The circumstance of this bird visiting the cliffs of tlie Isle of Wight to 

 breed, induces me to believe that it was a Kittiwake, which species breed there 

 every year in great numbers. Our Common Gull, to which Gmelin applied the 

 term Lavas hyliernus, breeds on low flat islands or marshes whenever it has the 

 power of choosing, and of such ground there is plenty on the Lymington and 

 Hurst Castle side of the Southampton Water. 



