372 THE BIKDS OF DEVOX. 



where it is a summer visitor, the eggs being laid at the end of May. It 

 is most numerous on the south coast of the county in autumn and winter, 

 appearing in large flocks in October and November, especially when sprats 

 are on the coast. It leaves Plymouth Sound at the end of February. 

 Large flocks frequent the estuaries in a starving condition after long- 

 continued gales (J. G., in lift. ; Zool, 1873, p. 344G) This species, how- 

 ever, usually keeps more out at sea than the I51ack-headed Gull, feeding 

 more generally on small fishes than that species. We have never seen 

 any Kittiwakes on the fields inland in company with other Gulls, and 

 believe it to be quite an oceanic species. Sometimes these Gulls are 

 lilown far inland in winter, and on the coast of North Devon Kittiwakes 

 are often found dead on the sands after a heavy gale at midsummer 

 (M. A. i[., Zool. 1859, p. G762), and on the south coast after winter 

 storms. Strangely enough, Montagu met with this bird only once in the 

 South of England, when three were thrown up by the tide in March 1806 

 on the south coast of Devon (Orn. Diet.). 



The Kittiwake is the most numerously represented of all the Gull 

 family ui)on the Devonshire coasts, on some portion of which it may be 

 seen throughout the year. In the summer-time great numbers may be 

 encountered on Barnstaple liay, or may be seen wheeling aboiit the 

 entrance of Ilfracombe Harbour. After heavy autumnal gales wo have 

 found the sands off the Eraunton Burrows and the shores of the Barn- 

 staple river strewn with the bodies of drowned Kittiwakes ; cartloads 

 might have been gathered. Great numbers of Kittiwakes nest on Lundy 

 and also on the Scilly Islands, and we are informed that a few nest on 

 tlie cliffs of the Land's End, and in 1873 Lord Lilford found a pair with 

 young, nearly full fledged, on the Cod Ilock, oft' Berry Head, on the South 

 Devon coast. Immense ni;rabers nest on the northern side of the Bristol 

 Channel, on Skomer and llamsey Islands, oft' Pembrokeshire. In the 

 winter-time great flocks of Kittiwakes appear along the Cornish coast, 

 entering fearlessly into the harbours, and Mr. llodd considered these 

 Gulls were, next to the Black-headed Gull, the most numerous Cornish 

 species. Both on the North Somerset and the Dorset coast Kittiwakes 

 congregate in the bays and harbours in pursuit of the sprats, and numbei's 

 of these poor birds are cruelly caught in baited gins by boys, and hawked 

 about *. 



"We have visited various breeding-stations, containing countless Jiests ; 

 they are generally constructed of seaweeds, which, after a time, become 

 almost cemented together by the droppings of the birds. The eggs vary 

 greatly in size, shape, and markings, and very pretty varieties may be 

 picked out. 



The young birds in their first plumage are called " Tarrocks," and as 

 they are flying seem to have a black collar round their necks. The Kitti- 

 wake is usually distinguished from all the other Gulls through the absence 

 of a hind toe. Mr. Gatcombe, however, in October 1S8(J, met with a 



* For an interesting account of the barbarous slaugliter of Kittiwakes at Lundy I^aud, 

 for the sake of their wings for ladies' hats, see Yarrells 13. Birds, 4th ed. iii. p. (ii)3. 



