begin to repair their nests. Their favourite breeding-places are on the perpen- 

 dicular cliffs, rising sheer from the water; here they build their nests on every 

 available point or ledge, sometimes quite close down to the water. On the Bass 

 Rock, where the tops of the cliffs are entirely taken up by the Solan Geese, the 

 Kittiwakes cluster about the base of the cliffs in company with the Guillemots 

 and Razorbills. 



The Kittiwake is much more painstaking in the construction of its nest 

 than most of the gulls are, though it is usually a very dirty structure outside, 

 and, like most of the rocks around, is completely white-washed with the droppings 

 of the birds. The foundation is generally made of little bits of turf or small 

 plants of sea-pink torn up by the roots, which with much wet, and constantly 

 being trampled on by the birds, soon becomes a solid mud cake of great dura- 

 bility ; pieces of seaweed, sea-campion, and green grass are next added, and 

 the whole is lined with fine dry grass and a few small feathers. 



The eggs of the Kittiwake vary in number from two to three, but on rare 

 occasions four may be found ; they have the ground colour varying from a pale 

 greenish blue through shades of green and olive to pale buff and brown ; under- 

 lying shell-markings are pale brown and purple grey, the whole surface being 

 blotched and spotted with rich red-brown markings. The surface-markings may 

 be small and pretty evenly distributed over the whole egg, or form a sort of zone 

 round the large end of it, or, as is sometimes the case, may consist of only two 

 or three tiny specks of colour, the grey and brown underlying markings being 

 much larger and more conspicuous. In some specimens the surface-blotches 

 are very large, and shade away into the underlying marks, these are by far the 

 most handsome specimens. The eggs vary but little in size and shape, from 

 2'2 to 2 - o inches in length, and from 1*6 to 1*5 inch in breadth; they cannot 

 easily be confused with those of any other of our British Gulls. 



Young in down are pale grey on the upper parts ; the head and under parts 

 are pure white slightly tinged with pale brown on the flanks. 



As soon as an intruder appears at the colony the air is filled with birds, 

 anxiously calling with their plaintive cries; they are, however, much more 

 timid than is usual with the gulls, and rarely swoop at the intruder's head as 

 most of the other gulls do. They are extremely tame when the eggs become 

 highly incubated, and may be easily approached within a few feet. I was once 

 lowered on a rope to photograph two birds on their nests at St. Abb's Head, 

 and they paid no attention to me, though I dangled on the end of the rope 

 within nine feet of them, and went through the usual photographic evolutions 

 with a large focussing-cloth. 



54 



