KITTI WAK E. 
LAItm TKIDACTYLUS. 
None of our British birds havo been so horribly porsccuted as the unfortunato Ivittiwake; luckily many of the 
breeding-stations to wbicb this species resorts are too remote to suffer from the depredations inflicted on those 
within reach of shooters and the dealers profiting by the sale of the birds when procured. I have had many 
opportunities for w^atching the slaughter of this species in several parts of the country, and also asceitained 
that immense numbers had been obtained in the Channel off Brighton, their wings in due course passing into 
the possession of the plumassiers. The manner in wdiich this species has been destroyed and, in some localities, 
almost cleared off is described by several writers, and I have selected a few extracts that afford a better insight 
into the barbarity to which they have been exposed than I could give from what has come under my own 
observation. In the fourth edition of Yarrell’s ‘ Uistory of British Birds,’ revised and enlarged by Howard 
Saunders, P.L.S., P.Z.S., the following remarks are to be found under the heading of the Kittiwake Gull 
“ Some years ago, when the plumes of birds were much worn in ladies hats a fashion which any season 
may be revived — the barred wing of the young Kittiwake was in great demand for this purpose, and vast 
numbers were slaughtered at their breeding-haunts. At Clovelly, opposite Bundy Island, there was a regular 
staff for preparing the plumes, and fishing-smacks with extra boats and crews used to commence their work of 
destruction at Lundy Island by daybreak on the 1st of August, continuing this proceeding for upwards of a 
fortnight. In many cases -the wings w^ere torn off the wounded birds before they were dead, the mangled 
victims being tossed back into the water ; and the Editor has seen hundreds of young birds dead, or dying of 
starvation in the nests, through want ot their parents’ care, for in the heat of the fusillade no distinction w’^as 
made between old and young. On one day 700 birds were sent back to Clovelly, on another 500, and so on; 
and, allowing for the starved nestlings, it is well within the mark to say that at least 9000 of these inoffensive 
birds were destroyed during the fortnight.” 
■William MacGillivray, in his ‘ History of British Birds,’ makes the following remarks, which prove that 
the same senseless destruction of this species was also carried on many years ago in the south of Scotland : 
“ Human nature is so perverse that reason affords but a feeble check to appetite and impulse, else I 
should here deprecate the useless slaughter of these innocent birds. Parties are formed on our eastern coast 
for the sole purpose of shooting them ; and I have seen a person station himself on the top of the Kittiwake 
cliff of the Isle of May, and shoot incessantly for several hours, without so much as afterwards picking up a 
single individual of the many killed and maimed birds with which the smooth water was strewn beneath. Nay, 
I have seen one wdio, in his books, admonishes you, with great solemnity, of the sin of shooting birds of any 
kind unless for some useful purpose, fire away at the poor Kittiwakes with as much glee as a school-boy at 
Sparrows. It is, in fact, human nature, tyrannical and most unamiable. The noise of guns does not always 
frishten the sittin®' birds from their nests, and those which have left them presently return, when the boat has 
advanced a short way.” 
