KITTIVVAKE GULL. 187 



adventurous party. Several nests of the Kittiwake and many of its eggs 

 had been brought safe on board. Notes had been taken on the spot, and 

 the result of the expedition was as follows : — The nests were found placed 

 on some ledge of the huge rock, so small as barely to admit their breadth, 

 which was about a foot. They were placed where no other bird than the 

 Guillemot would have ventured to drop its egg, or the Raven to fix his 

 nest. Yet on that narrow platform the Kittiwake sat on its three ego-s, 

 as unconcerned as if in a meadow. The nests were altogether composed 

 of sea-weeds called " eel-grass," and coarse grasses, probably procured on 

 the top of the rock, or stolen from the nest of some unwary Solan Goose. 

 Their inner surface was quite flat, although some of the nests were many 

 inches in thickness, and looked as if they had been increased in bulk year 

 after year. The sitting birds remained on their eggs with uncommon 

 pertinacity, seldom indeed flying off", but merely moving aside. The 

 male birds, or those that had no eggs, on the contrary, were extremely 

 clamorous, flew around the party in great concern, and shewed much cou- 

 rage. The eggs are of a light olive-green colour, marked with numerous 

 irregular spots of dark brown. Their average length is two inches and a 

 quarter, their greatest breadth one inch and seven-eighths. No other 

 species of Gull was seen about the rock ; and indeed I have regularly ob- 

 served that each species of this genus breeds far apart, although at all 

 other seasons it may associate with others. 



The young remain a considerable time in the nest or about it, when 

 room is afforded. Their bills and feet are now quite black, the eye dark, 

 and they do not change these colours until the second spring after their 

 birth, when the bill is dull yellow, the legs and feet of a greenish flesh- 

 colour, and these parts gradually improve in their tints until they acquire 

 the appearance represented in the plate. This species raises only one 

 brood in the season, and old and young leave the coast of Labrador at 

 the first appearance of winter, or when the Ivory Gull reaches that coun- 

 try. This, however, I know only from hearsay, having received the in- 

 formation from a settler at Bras d'Or, who has lived there many years, 

 and must know something of both species, as he was in the habit of salt- 

 ing young Kittiwakes for winter provisions, along with those of other spe- 

 cies, and of shooting the Ivory Gull when it arrived over his harbour in 

 the month of December. 



The Kittiwake is on land the most awkward of its tribe ; and, although 

 it walks often on the rocks, its gait manifests a waddling gaucherie ; but 



