346 
LARIDiE. 
Mr. G. C. Hyndman has mentioned to me, that when he was 
sailing, on the 24th of June, 1844, some miles from Ailsa, kitti- 
wakes — which breed in quantities on that majestic pyramidal 
rock — were attracted by the bait that was out for gurnard, and 
which, in consequence of the speed of the yacht in sailing, was 
dragged along the surface. Perceiving this, he threw out pieces 
of fat meat to them, when about twenty gathered round the 
vessel, and followed it for two or three miles. 
At Ballantrae, on the coast of Ayrshire, these birds are com- 
monly taken, in the following manner, by idle boys. They bait 
hooks with the liver of the cod-fish, and fling them as far out from 
the shore as possible, having a stone as a counterpoise to the 
gull's weight attached to the opposite end of the string, and left 
at the edge of the water. They then retire to such a distance as to 
allow the victims to come freely to the bait, and so soon as this is 
swallowed, they hasten to the stone and draw in the line with the 
hooked gull at its other extremity. Yarious species of gulls have 
been thus taken. The kittiwakes are purchased on the spot at a 
penny each for the sake of their feathers, and a person of my 
acquaintance there has obtained as many of them from birds cap- 
tured in this manner, as have sufficed to stuff some pillows. 
When proceeding, on the 1st of February, 1849, in a steam- 
boat from East Tarbert to Greenock, and about the entrance to 
Loch Fine, I was attracted by the great beauty of an immature 
gull of this species during flight. Its beauty consisted in the 
black margined wing, the black band round the hinder part of 
the base of the neck, and the black terminal band of the tail. 
The black along the entire anterior portion of the wings, and 
continued as it were across the base of the neck from one wing to 
the other, had a very handsome appearance. 
Mr. Hewitson, in his elegant work on the eggs of British birds, 
gives an interesting account of the kittiwake at the Shetland 
Islands. The late Mr. G. Matthews remarked it as very common 
in summer along the coast of Norway. 
