494 NATATORES. LARUS. KITTIWAKE. 



Periodical Dr FLEMING, in his History of British Animals, has given 

 the Kittiwake as a resident species, but has not mentioned 

 any authority for the statement. My own observations, I 

 must confess, are at variance with this assertion, nor do I find 

 that it has been admitted a such by any other of our orni- 

 thological writers. It appears, on the contrary, to be a sum- 

 mer visitant, making its first appearance upon our coasts 

 about the end of April, and departing soon after the duties 

 of reproduction have been effected, that is, in the early au- 

 tumnal months. Its distribution, during its sojourn with us, 

 is confined to the coast of Scotland and some of the northern 

 English counties, and, from the facts I have been able to col- 

 lect, it seems to be more abundant upon the eastern than on 

 the opposite side of the kingdom, which may perhaps be at- 

 tributed to the line of its migrative flight from the eastern 

 parts of Europe, to which shores the great body of those that 

 breed here seem to retire in winter. In the south of Eng- 

 land it is of very rare occurrence, and MONTAGU mentions 

 only two instances in which it had come under his observa- 

 tion. It is a bird of wide distribution, extending over the 

 greater part of Europe up to very high latitudes, over the 

 northern regions of Asia, a great portion of the North Ame- 

 rican continent (where RICHARDSON says it abounds on the 

 lakes in the interior of the fur countries), and the coasts of 

 the Pacific, as well as the shores of the Arctic Seas, to which 

 latter it annually retires to breed. It differs from the more 

 typical Gulls in the imperfect development of its hind toe, 

 which is small, and without any claw, on which account it 

 has been made the type of a genus called Rissa by Mr STE- 

 PHENS. The tarsi are also shorter and weaker in proportion 

 to its bulk, and the legs are placed further behind the centre 

 of the body, in which points it approaches to the Petrels, 

 and connects the Gulls more immediately with that group. 

 Its habits are also rather similar to the former, for unlike to 

 Larus canus, L. ridibundus, and some others, it never ad- 

 vances inland in search of worms, grubs, &c., but procures 



