THE KITTIWAKE GULL. 289 



eat them. They leave the rocks about harvest, and none of 

 them are ever seen here before the next spring. 1 Selby, in 

 his " Account of the Birds observed at St. Abb's Head on the 

 18th of July 1832," which appears in the first volume of the 

 History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, remarks that : 

 " The Larus rissa or Kittiwake is also numerous, but does 

 not breed in company with the other [Larus canus], select- 

 ing in preference the small projecting angles, which barely 

 admit of room for the reception of their eggs and young. 2 " 

 The next notice of the Kittiwake on the Berwickshire coast 

 is by Mr. Archibald Hepburn, who, in his " Notes on some 

 of the Mammalia and Birds found at St. Abb's Head on the 

 20th of June 1851," says : "Next to the foolish Guillemot, 

 the Kittiwake (Larus tridactylus) is by far the most numerous 

 bird about the Head. Unlike the other species of gull found 

 here, they showed no preference for the tufts of grass grow- 

 ing on the precipices, but built their nests in crevices or 

 ledges of rock, sometimes solitary or in small colonies, which 

 again were occasionally distinct from, and at other times 

 intermingled with, the nests of the Guillemot. This gull 

 derives its name from its well-marked cry, ' Kitty- week,' 

 sharp stress being laid upon the last syllable when the bird 

 is angry or alarmed." 3 Macgillivray, writing in 1852, 

 mentions St. Abb's Head as one of the principal breeding 

 stations of the Kittiwake in Scotland. 4 About 1855 or 

 1856 the late Mr. Andrew Wilson of Coldingham gave to 

 Mr. Hardy, Oldcambus, a list of the birds which were then 

 found breeding at St. Abb's Head, and in it this species is 

 mentioned as nesting at Skelly, Foul Carr Eib, and the 

 Eampart. About 1857 Mr. Hardy submitted the list to Mr. 

 Francis Purves, who was well acquainted with the birds at 



1 The Statistical Account of Scotland, by Sir John Sinclair, Bart., vol. xii. p. 57. 



2 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. i. p. 19. 3 /j^. vo i. yj. p> 74. 

 4 History of British Birds, vol. v. p. 518. 



VOL. II. T 



