THE KITTIWAKE. 
343 
young just hatched 'as well as others ready to fly.”* About the 
rocks of Howth, Ireland's Eye, and Lambay, they have been met 
with in the breeding season by Mr. R. Ball and myself. 
When at the Mew Island — one of the Copeland Islands — in 
June 1827 and 1832, I was surprised to see very large flocks of 
kittiwakes, both there and on the neighbouring rocks, all in full 
plumage, though no breeding-place was near. At the Skerries, 
too, off Portrush, as already mentioned, numbers were met with 
early in July: on" the island of Rathlin, not far distant, the 
species has a breeding-haunt ; but u these individuals, like those at 
the Mew Island, probably did not seek to multiply their kind. 
The presence of numbers of full-plumaged kittiwakes in the 
height of the breeding season about localities where they do not 
build has been commented on by Mr. Lawrence Edmonston, in 
the f Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' for 1822 (No. XIII. or 
vol. vii.), who informs us : — “ Of the multitudes of the Lams 
rissa, or kittiwake, that annually arrive in Zetland to breed, large 
flocks are observed to keep apart from those which repair to the 
usual haunts for incubation, resting on the water, or on low 
rocks, and, from their not breeding, are termed in the dialect of 
the country yeeld kittiwakes. t This singular fact in their history 
has been stated by Dr. Edmonston in his f Yiew of the Zetland 
Islands;' but I am not conscious that any explanation has yet 
been offered of it.'' The writer “ suspects these yeeld kittiwakes 
to be merely the young of the first year, which, although attained 
to perfect plumage, have not yet acquired the faculty of propaga- 
tion ."J To the interesting papePitself I must refer [for further 
information and speculations on the subject. 
On visiting~the Mew Island, in June 1833, under similar cir- 
* Mr. J. Poole. 
f This would also seem to be the case with the garnet at St. Kilda. Mr. John 
Macgillivray, who visited that island in 1841, and gave a very interesting description 
of the birds there, states that — “ The account given by Martin of the barren gan- 
nets, which roost separately from the others, was confirmed by the natives.” — Edin. 
Phil. Jour. January 1842, p. 66. 
X Mr. Selby (p. 495) and Audubon (vol. iii. p. 187) say, that the kittiwake is two 
years in attaining adult plumage. 
