TfiE Zoologist — September, 186S. 13G7 



the birds return from their foraging expedition and disgorging their 

 prey at the nest. 



Kittiwake Gull. — The kittiwake gull breeds in great numbers all 

 round the precipitous sides of Ailsa, the ledges and slabs of the 

 columnar rock affording unusual facilities. They generally select 

 the highest parts of the cliffs, as being more inaccessible and less 

 liable to intrusion. The nests to which I scaled on the cliffs were 

 very difficult of access, clinging to the rocks high overhead; but a 

 good opportunity occurred when the cragsman offered to show me a 

 breeding-place that could be easily scaled. After passing the ruins 

 of the castle and keeping in the hollow, where the bracken fern grows 

 • luxuriantly, we come to a gully, down which in wet weather a streamlet 

 trickles; here I am shown some ledges on which are eighteen or 

 twenty nests. I take off my boots and jacket and cautiously creep 

 along the verge of the precipice and along the ledges which overhang 

 the sea. The kittiwakes, alarmed at my approach, leave their nests 

 and fly around me, boldly dashing close to my face, so that I can feel 

 the fan of their wings, crying their mournful "kittiwake, kittiwake." 

 Their nest is composed of a layer of mud at the base, on which is laid 

 a thick matting of dry campion-stalks (Silene maritima), and lined 

 with shreds of grass and sea-weed. They do not build a fresh nest 

 every year, but partly demolish the old one, and add fresh dry weed, 

 &c, so that some nests are much thicker and deeper than others. 

 They plaster the foundation to the rock with wet mud, for which pur- 

 pose one very frequently sees them hovering over a dripping spring 

 which trickles down the cliffs at the back of the house. They seem 

 rather various in the time of laying, for in some nests the young are 

 just hatched, while in others only the first egg is laid, and I saw oue 

 nest in the process of building. The eggs vary greatly in colour and 

 markings, from a creamy blue speckled with slaty brown, varying in 

 every shade of brown to a rich deep umber, clouded with darker 

 blotches. Their number varies also : of the many nests which I 

 visited in different parts of the cliffs, four was the prevailing number; 

 some had but three, others five, but six is the greatest number of eggs 

 I have ever seen in oue nest. The young when newly hatched, until 

 they are fledged are mottled with darker brown like the eggs : this is 

 a curious feature in all the gull tribe from the blackheaded to the 

 great blackbacked, that the young are always brown mottled with 

 darker shade. The delicate tints and gentle manners of this handsome 

 gull remind one of a dove. Breeding on the inaccessible cliffs and 



