PLATE I 

 KITTIWAKE GULL. Rissa tridactyla 



June io///, 1893. After great difficulty in lowering myself and my camera on 

 to a narrow ledge of rock in a deep chasm near the ' Pinnacles ' on the Fame 

 Islands, I succeeded in taking this photograph of a Kittiwake on her nest on 

 the opposite side. As there was barely room for me to stand on the ledge 

 with my back against the rock, it was quite impossible for me to set up my 

 camera on its legs, so I had to hold it in my hands for a two-and-a-half second 

 exposure, which is not a very easy thing to do. 



The bird was exceedingly tame, as far as alighting on the nest was con- 

 cerned, but she would not settle on to her eggs, and I had to be contented with 

 a photograph of her sitting on the edge of the nest, and took four plates of her 

 in various positions. 



The nest was made of little bits of turf, and the soil adhering to the roots 

 of the grass and sea-pink, of which it was composed, had been worked into a 

 regular concrete with the damp and trampling of the birds' feet. It was lined 

 with tiny pieces of sea-campion, dry grass, and a few feathers, and contained 

 three very beautiful eggs, which were evidently pretty nearly hatching, as the 

 bird was extremely reluctant to leave the nest. 



Just below this nest was another, containing newly hatched young birds, 

 and the parents were very busy feeding them with pieces of fish, which they 

 disgorged on the side of the nest, and gave in little pieces to them. I was 

 very anxious to get a photograph of this nest with the old birds feeding their 

 young, but unfortunately the light was not strong enough so far down in the 

 chasm, and my plates were all hopelessly under exposed. 



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