">6 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



webs, the primaries and quills black, " the seventh often plain but sometimes 

 with a minute black spot on the outer web " (Saunders) ; tail white with a broad 

 brownish-black terminal band, narrower on the outermost feathers ; bill, legs and 

 feet dark- brown. When in this plumage the young Kittiwakes are called Tarrocks. 



There is a partial moult during the first autumn of the bird's life — the body 

 feathers changing ; but not the wing or tail quills — during which the dark 

 feathers in the hind neck become paler. At the various subsequent autumn 

 moults the back and wings gradually lose the blackish-brown and become dark 

 lavender-grey ; and the neck collar becomes less and less and finally fades out. 



The adult birds after their incubating labours are over, change their summer 

 attire for their first winter plumage, which differs from that they have just put 

 off in showing spots of dark grey in front of and behind the eyes ; " on the 

 head and neck some slate colour, which is pale on the crown, deepens on the 

 nape, where it almost forms a band, becomes blackish at the auriculars, and 

 passes into white on the shoulders" (Saunders). 



As soon as the young are able to fly the parents quit the nurseries, and 

 move along the coasts, recruiting after their labours and undergoing their autumnal 

 moult before proceeding to their southern retreats — that is such of them as are 

 going to migrate. In many parts of our coasts Kittiwakes are to be seen 

 during winter ; it is of course difficult to determine whether these birds belong 

 to the colonies that have bred in England, or whether they have come from 

 further north and are making our more temperate regions their winter retreat. 

 It is a true marine bird, and keeps very rigidly to the shore and coast, rarely 

 straying inland ; still it has been observed, by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, in his 

 " Lakeland," that in the spring of the year a few Kittiwakes often assemble in 

 the fields, a few miles from salt water, to feed on the worms and grubs exposed 

 by the plough. 



The Kittiwake is a poor walker on account of the shortness of its legs ; it 

 rests " either standing or lying like the other birds of this group ; associates 

 occasionally with Gulls and Terns ; is of a gentle disposition, sociable and 

 altogether amiable .... It flies with a rapid and constant beat of its curved 

 wings ; glides and wheels and hovers over the smooth sea, or skims lightly over 

 the high waves, descending into the furrows, and rising buoyantly to surmount 

 the advancing wave" (Macgillivray). 



The Kittiwake feeds on Crustacea, shell-fish, any surface floating marine life, 

 which, dropping down upon with elevated vibrating wings, they pick up most 

 deftly. Dr. Malmgren, according to Professor Newton, found the stomachs of 

 Kittiwakes, opened by him, filled with Limaclna ardica and Clio borealis. 



