324 BRITISH BIRDS 



It is common round the British Islands throughout the year, but 

 probably most of the birds that breed on our coasts migrate to more 

 southern regions in winter, their places, meanwhile, being taken by 

 visitors from the north. Its breeding-sites, often shared with the 

 guillemot and razorbill, are precipitous rocky cliffs fronting the 

 sea, the nest being placed on the ledges and wherever a projecting 

 rock affords standing-room for a bird of its size. When the colony 

 is a numerous one the birds may be seen whitening the face of 

 the precipice from within a few feet above high-water mark to 

 within a few feet of the top. The nests, often placed so near to- 

 gether as to be almost touching, are rather bulky, built of seaweed 

 mixed with turf, and lined witli dry grass. Two or three, some- 

 times four, eggs are laid, varying in ground-colour from greenish 

 blue to olive-brown, or buff, or huffish brown, spotted and blotched 

 with reddish brown, and under -markings of pale brown and grey. 



Where suitable sites exist, and the birds are not too much 

 molested, the kittiwakes have breeding colonies on the British coasts 

 from the Scilly Islands and the Cornish and Devon cliffs right away 

 to St. Kilda in the north. The kittiwakes breed later than most 

 gulls, unfortunately for them. It has been pointed out again and 

 again that the young birds are often hardly able to feed themselves, 

 and in many cases are not yet out of their nests, at the end of July, 

 which is also the end of the close time for sea-birds. It then be- 

 comes lawful for the scoundrels who practise this form of sport to 

 slaughter the kittiwakes both the helpless young and the parent 

 birds that are engaged in feeding and protecting them. 



Herring-Gull. 



Lams argentatus. 



Bill yellow ; legs and feet flesh-colour ; mantle grey ; head, tail, 

 and lower parts white ; outer primaries black. Length, twenty-four 

 inches. 



The herring-gull, which derives its name from its habit of follow- 

 the shoals of herrings, is common on our coasts throughout the 

 year. Like most gulls, it searches the shore at ebb-tide for stranded 

 marine animals, dead and alive, and garbage of all kinds. It quarrels 

 with ravens and crows over the carcass of a (lend sheep, and. like 

 the raven, is a plunderer of eggs and young birds from the cliffs. It 



