242 KITTIWAKE 
nests, but the whole form practically one settlement. I 
have heard it stated by Port Erin boatmen, that the birds 
have decreased in their recollection. There are perhaps 
some thirty or forty pairs. Eggs appear to be laid about 
the beginning of the second week in June. I am told that 
this colony has existed for at least forty years, and it is no 
doubt the one mentioned by Dr. Crellin as above. 
As decidedly a sea-bird as the Guillemot or Gannet, the 
Kittiwake usually, except during its nesting time, keeps to 
the open water, but yet sometimes, especially in stormy 
weather, is seen off our coasts and harbours, as about Christ- 
mas 1894, when a number of this species, some adult, others 
immature with black collars and wing bars, were daily about 
the Victoria Pier and the harbour at Douglas. Dead speci- 
mens are occasionally cast ashore after storms, but on the 
whole the bird is not a familiar one in the Isle of Man. 
On 13th June 1895 a number of immature Kittiwakes 
were roosting on the cliffs of Maughold Head, and this habit 
was well known to boatmen of the neighbourhood as a 
common occurrence. On 5th July 1898 very large flocks 
of Gulls, which were resting along the beach of the Ayre, 
were composed chiefly of mature individuals of this species. 
The flight of the Kittiwake has a peculiar wild ease and 
grace, and it flings itself from time to time with force upon 
the water, a habit also of other species of Gull, which. do 
not, however, so habitually practise it. In winter it some- 
times utters a slight Sandpiper-like sound, quite different 
from any other gull-utterance with which I am acquainted. 
On 22nd November 1887 ten Kittiwakes were reported 
at the Chickens, the light-keepers adding, ‘ These birds are 
seldom here at this season in such numbers.’ 
The Kittiwake breeds at Rockabill and Lambay, on Ire- 
land’s Eye and on Rathlin, on the Scar Rock in Luce Bay 
(and on Ailsa Craig), but not on the English side of the 
— eee 
