THE KITTIWAKE. 
341 
room to sit and hatch their egg s, or tend their young, for five or 
six nests were placed on a shelf of rock so close to each other, 
that the birds sat in contact, and, if not peaceably inclined, would 
have thrown the whole into confusion, and prevented each other 
from fulfilling the process of incubation. Yet they all seemed to 
live in harmony; and except when one unintentionally occupied 
a nest not its own (which very rarely happened), they never. at- 
tempted to disturb one another. The young, when first excluded 
from the shell, are covered with a greyish down, intermixed with 
white. Their food consisted chiefly of fry. Tor two or three 
miles along the base of these cliffs, the rocks were covered with 
eggs, from which the young had been liberated — young birds 
which had been precipitated from the rocks, and with the excre- 
ment and feathers of the adult birds.” 
On my visiting the Skerries off Portrush on the 12th of July, 
1833, a large number of kittiwakes were assembled on a rock ; 
my companion fired at them and killed several, all of which were 
in adult plumage : their legs varied much in colour, from a yel- 
lowish-olive to pale black ; irides very dark brown : — they were 
not breeding on those islands. 
In June 1832, I saw kittiwakes in immense numbers about 
their nesting-places in the range of magnificent cliffs westward of 
Horn Head. Under date of the 29th it was there noted, that 
from the Temple Brig, looking eastward, I saw at one view thou- 
sands sitting on their nests, which are all placed on narrow hori- 
zontal shelves, for about half-way up the rocks from the water, and 
in depth only sufficient to contain a single row of them. They are 
placed close together, and the birds on them as near to each 
other as they can sit. The nests are very thick (fully three 
inches), round in form, and composed apparently of the grass 
Mymus arenarius. They are perfectly circular inside, and ex- 
hibit no feathers as lining to the sides : being every one occupied, 
the bottom is not visible. When some of the old birds stand 
up in the nests, their young, about the size of newly hatched 
chickens, and of a brownish-grey colour, are seen. Some of the 
old birds exhibited the pretty and graceful gestures of the dove when 
