THE KITTIWAKE GULL. 10 3 



found, and ranges southward as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the eastern 

 side, and the Kurile islands on the Pacific sea-board. 



In winter it migrates southward, but many flocks remain in the more 

 temperate parts of its range throughout that season. It reaches as far as the 

 Mediterranean and along the west coast of Africa, and in the American continent 

 to the south of Carolina on the one side, and of San Francisco on the other. 



In size and plumage both sexes are alike. In the end of March the adults, 

 when they are on their northern journey and making for their skerry nurseries, 

 are coming into their full nuptial dress. At this season the head, the entire 

 neck down to the upper back, the rump, the upper-tail coverts, the tail and the 

 entire under side are pure white ; the mantle dark lavender grey ; the scapulars 

 and secondaries tipped with white ; in the wing which is pointed and extends 

 for an inch and a half beyond the tail the primary shafts are ashy ; " quills 

 chiefly grey, but the outer web black in the first, grey in the others ; terminal 

 portions of first to third primaries black ; fourth quill with extreme tip white, 

 surmounted by a black bar, and the fifth similar, with a narrower bar ; in the 

 sixth there is, sometimes, a subterminal black bar varying in breadth and at other 

 times a mere black speck the size of a pin's head on the outer web, while in 

 mature birds the entire feather is spotless grey, with whitish inner margins, as 

 are the succeeding primaries and the upper parts of all " (Saunders) ; bill pale 

 greenish yellow ; legs blackish brown, toes darker ; ring round the eye rich 

 yellow. Length 17 inches; wing 12^ ; tail 5; tarsus ij ; middle toe with its 

 claw, 2. 



The Kitti wakes begin in the middle of April and on to the end of the 

 month, and into May, to construct their rather large nests of mud, sea-weed, 

 fresh-water algae or grass, placing them on the ledge (often a quite narrow one) of the 

 precipitous rock the colony may have chosen which they return to year after 

 year. So narrow, as Macgillivray remarks, are the ledges they choose, that the 

 nests seem " stuck against the face of the rock like those of Swallows." They 

 build also in caves in the cliffs, and occasionally on the grass in all these 

 situations often in association with Little Auks and Gullemots. Very often storms 

 and rain-deluges wash away these nests off the rocks, with the result that their 

 breeding season is greatly lengthened. 



The Kittiwake lays two to three eggs of about, on an average, 2\ inches in 

 length by 1 1 inch in diameter, spotted pretty uniformly all over with dark brown 

 and purplish-brown (the spots beneath the surface) on a ground which varies 

 from white, through yellowish- or greenish-white and olive-green to purplish- 

 brown. The surface of the shell is less polished than in most other Gulls' eggs. 



