36 FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. 



THE KITTIWAKE. 



Liver of fish is the best bait for Kittiwakes. They can scent this afar ; 

 or perhaps their keen vision enables them to descry it. Boat-loads of them 

 used to be shot to it ; and a great many are still. The smacks that go to sea 

 open their fish, and toss out the refuse ; and the hungry birds come, and 

 are killed. 



A Kittiwake will make two plumes, which are worth Is. each ; and the 

 head and wings are useful for screens, penwipers, &c. The supply does not 

 nearly equal the demand since the Act was passed ; and I was greatly amused 

 at the shifts to which the plumassiers have had to resort — Larks, Starlings, 

 and even Sparrows being cut up by them in default of any thing better. 

 Guillemots, Razorbills, and Puffins are of no use for plumes : these birds 

 ought soon to increase enormously. 



I hope the Act has not come too late to save the much persecuted 

 Kittiwake, as it is almost the only sort of Gull which breeds at Flamborough ; 

 I believe that the common Gull never does. That the persons who were 

 making a rich harvest before should feel some animosity against those 

 who passed the Bill is very natural ; but I am glad to say that all that 

 is now dying away. One man, now dead, told me that he used to take 

 £15 to £18 a week in feathers, and that with the money from that alone 

 he built three houses ; but he confessed to me that, while he did it, he 

 always thought it was an "infamous shame to cut up so many good 

 birds." Another said, "You gentlemen ought to stand us £1000 for the 

 damage you've done us." But there is a great deal of right feeling among 

 the Flamborough men ; and I believe that many a one is secretly pleased that 

 the slaughter is put a stop to. 



Boats full of excursionists from Sheffield, who could not hit a haystack. 



