442 BIRDS OF DUlVirRIESSHIRE 
The Kittiwake Gull nests in huge colonies on many 
precipitous cHfiPs round the British Isles, and in myriads in 
the arctic and sub-arctic regions of the old and new worlds. 
In winter it wanders as far south as the Mediterranean, 
Caspian and Black Seas in Europe, and in America to the 
coasts of California, Virginia and Bermuda. 
[Mr. J. J. Armistead states that he saw an Ivory-Gull 
{Pagophila eburnea (Phipps)), on August 3rd, 1898, *' when 
riding at anchor in the Solway Firth," and the next day he 
again saw it feeding on the ooze about one hundred and fifty 
yards from him.* This individual was seen on the Barn- 
hourie Bank outside of Southerness, Kirkcudbrightshire, and 
Mr. R. Service writes "as an albino of the Herring Gull 
was got shortly after, there seems little doubt the record 
must be rejected. "f 
The Ivory-Gull is circumpolar in its distribution, and is 
but a rare visitor to northern Europe, some forty specimens 
having been obtained from time to time in Great Britain.] 
THE GREAT SKUA. Megalestris catarrhactes (Linnaeus). 
A very rare visitor. 
Writing of the " Common Skua, Lestris Skua," in 1843, 
Sir William Jardine says : "we have seen them occasionally 
on the Solway Firth."} It is probable that in those days 
the species generally was more numerous than it is now, 
and it may therefore have been met with " occasionally 
on the Solway Firth " at the time at which Sir WiUiam wrote. 
Mr. W. Nichol writes me that on August 4th, 1907, he 
observed a Great Skua ofE the Dumfriesshire coast. 
* Zoologist, 1898, p. 414. 
t Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, April 20th, 1905. 
t Nat. Lib., 1843, Vol. XIV., p. 264. 
