THE KITTIWAKE 189 



of the cliff, into which they dug the clean yellow bills until loaded and 

 coated with mud. With this, or with tuft of grass tugged up by the 

 roots, they flew off to their ledge, where they were welcomed with loud 

 Tdtti-way-eks by their mates. Each on alighting dropped its contribution, 

 or, in the case of the more adhesive mud, shook it off and out of the 

 beak on to the growing nest, but sometimes so energetically that bits 

 were jerked over the edge of the ledge down into the sea. The bird 

 then trod the addition in with alternate movements of the feet, and 

 also from time to time pressed it down with the breast. The treading 

 process lasted several seconds at a time, the little builder being 

 evidently determined to make the structure cohesive and solid. Its 

 mate waited generally a few seconds to see the work well started, and 

 then flew off for material, returning to be greeted in the same way. 

 Sometimes the same bird went mud or grass hunting two or three 

 times in succession. Sometimes one would go off on a jaunt, or on 

 a feeding excursion, or drop down to the sea either to bathe or to 

 clean its muddy beak, which it did by rubbing it with its feet and 

 splashing it about in the water. Again, at times, a flock of birds 

 together would suddenly and simultaneously cease work and fly out 

 to sea a hundred yards or so, the outflight, like the sudden up-flights 

 of the blackheaded-gulls (p. 144), being silent, while the return was all 

 noise and excitement a winged storm of kitti-way-eks ! 



The kittiwake frequently breeds on the same cliff with other 

 species, usually guillemots and razorbills, also with gannets. The 

 relative nesting-position of these species is no doubt primarily deter- 

 mined on each cliff face by the character of the rocky surface ; the 

 broad open ledges, wherever they are, are usually occupied by guille- 

 mots, the crevices by razorbills and perhaps puffins, while the kitti- 

 wakes are seen on the little irregular scattered ledges, whether high 

 up or low enough to be reached by the uptossed spray of the sea. 

 But there is no hard and fast rule. Guillemots or razorbills may be 

 found nesting in just the places one would expect to find kitti wakes, 

 and vice versa. I have seen the kitti wakes on the same ledge with 

 guillemots. They have been observed to occupy, as a rule, the lowest 



