LARIN.E. RISSA. 249 



head and neck greyish-white streaked with greyish-brown ; 

 lower parts white, spotted with brown ; upper parts varie- 

 gated with greyish-brown and brownish-white, the feathers 

 being margined with the latter ; quills brownish-black, tail 

 white, with a broad band of black at the end. 



Male, 18, 39, 14f, 1&, 2, Ifc, fa Female, 17. 



This very common, lively, and beautiful species, although 

 much inferior in size to Larus argentatus, is nearly allied to 

 it in form and colouring. It is permanently resident in Bri- 

 tain, common along the shores of the continent, but has not 

 been observed in America. Large flocks often traverse the 

 interior in winter and spring. In the breeding-season, they 

 are' found dispersed along the shores of England and Scotland, 

 much more abundantly in the northern parts of the latter 

 country, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and He- 

 brides. The nests are rathe? bulky, and contain two or three 

 broadly oval eggs, two inches and two-twelfths long, an inch 

 and a half in breadth, of various tints of brown or greenish- 

 grey, dotted and spotted with dark brown and purplish-grey. 

 They afford delicate eating, like those of all the other gulls. 

 The species feeds on small fishes, which are picked from the 

 water as the bird hovers over it, stranded fishes, asterise, 

 mollusca, shrimps, earth-worms, larvae, and insects, some- 

 times grain. 



Common Sea Maw, Mew, or Mall. Winter Gull. 



Larus canus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 224. Larus canus, Lath. 

 Ind. Ornith. ii. 815. Larus canus, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. 

 ii. 771. Larus canus, Green-billed Gull, MacGillivray, Brit. 

 Birds, v. 



GENUS CLI. RISSA. KITTIWAKE. 



The Kittiwake, so common on our rocky coasts, seems to 

 me to differ sufficiently in the form of its bill and feet from 

 the other Gulls, independently of its having merely a rudi- 

 mentary hind toe, to entitle it to generic distinction. The 

 body is of moderate size, the neck stout and of ordinary 

 length, the head rather large, ovato-oblohg. Bill rather 

 short, moderately stout, compressed, nearly straight ; upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line very slightly convex at first, 

 then arcuato-declinate, the ridge convex, gradually narrow- 

 ed, the nasal sinuses rather short, wide, and feathered, the 

 nostrils sub-medial, linear-oblong, wider anteriorly, covered 



