65- 



generally in company with other Gulls. In my expe- 

 rience this Gull is by no means a common visitor to the 

 Mediterranean ; but I met with it in winter in consider- 

 able numbers on the Atlantic coasts of Spain, and have 

 often noticed it following our ship as she ploughed 

 across the Bay of Biscay. I may mention, as a some- 

 what curious fact in connection with this bird, that a 

 Kittiwake, picked up in a miserably emaciated state 

 near Lilford, in November 1890, rapidly recovered flesh 

 and condition upon a diet of earthworms, but on the 

 failure of a supply of these delicacies, owing to intense 

 frost, entirely refused food of any kind, and actually died 

 of starvation with an abundance of fish within reach. 

 For details as to the hideous barbarities practised upon 

 this pretty and harmless bird for the sake of its feathers 

 in the interests of Fashion, I beg to refer my readers to 

 Yarrell's 'British Birds,' 4th ed. vol. iii. p. 653, in the 

 hope that any ladies who may honour me by reading 

 this article may study the passage to which I refer, and 

 do their utmost to check this sort of atrocity, by no 

 means, alas ! confined to our own country or to the 

 Kittiwakes. 



