KITTIWAKE. 



RiSSA TRIDACTYLA. 



Char. Mantle deep pearl gray; head, neck, tail, and under parts 

 white; ends of outer wing-feathers — the primaries — black, tipped with 

 white; bill greenish yellow ; legs and feet black. Length 15)4 inches. 



In winter the back of the neck is more or less suffused with gray. 

 Young birds have a black bill ; patch on back of neck, shoulders, and 

 terminal band on the tail brownish black. 



Nest. In a colony on the ledges of a clifT or on the mossy turf of an 

 island, occasionally amid the sand or shingle of a sea-beach ; usually 

 made of sea-weed or other coarse herbage from " the drift," lined with 

 grass or moss ; sometimes a few feathers are added. Each year the bulk 

 is increased by the addition of material. Nests have been found which 

 were mere depressions in the sand, sparsely lined with grass. 



Eggs. 2-4; buff of various shades tinted with olive, blotched, and 

 streaked with brown and lavender ; average size 2.20 X i.6o. 



The Kittiwake, or Tarrock, is found in the north of both 

 continents. It inhabits Newfoundland, Labrador, the islands 

 in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, the coasts of the Pacific, 



VOL. II. — 16 



