RISSA TRIDACTYLA. 
Kittiwake. 
Larus Rissia, Briinn. Orn. Bor., p. 140. 
— — tridactylus, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 55. 
torquatus, gavia, et canus, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. ii. pp. 328, 329, 330. 
Gavia tridactyla, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 563. 
Rissa Briinnichii, Leach, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. ZooL, vol. xiii. p. 181, pi. 21. 
Cheimonea tridactyla, Kaup, Natiii’l. Syst., p. 84. 
Rissa cinerea, Eyt. Hist, of Rarer Brit. Birds, p. 52. 
tridactyla, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 62. 
Laroides tridactylus, rissa, et minor, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., pp. 754, 755, 756, pi. 37. fig. 3. 
The Kittiwake is at once the most beautiful and the most interesting of our indigenous Gulls. Its plumage 
is so perfect and unsullied that, in this respect, no other species can surpass it ; neither has any of its con- 
geners so buoyant and graceful a flight. On the blue waters of the ocean it sports like a fairy, and when 
seen flying round the rocks and dark chasms wherein it breeds, one might almost imagine that they are 
spirits and not birds which are floating in the air. Those who are acquainted with the breeding-places of 
this bird, and have heard its wild cries amidst the spray and the loud monotonous booming of the waves of 
the ocean, will readily comprehend the feelings which fill ray breast while thus feebly writing on the 
Kittiwake. Not for a moment must it be supposed that it is the only species to be found in such situations ; 
for there also is to be seen a vast number of rock-loving birds of different genera, and even different fami- 
lies — Willocks, Puffins, Cormorants, other kinds of Gulls, Pigeons, the ubiquitous Starling, the Sea-Eagle, 
and the sharp-eyed Peregrine Falcon often forming part of the assemblage. Intermingled with such birds, 
the Kittiwake floats about to and fro, performing the most graceful curves and elegant evolutions. To 
those lovers of nature who have seen such scenes these lines will afford no information ; to others, and par- 
ticularly to those who have not had an opportunity of visiting these cradles of the birds of the ocean, they 
may be of interest, and induce a desire to view in reality that of which I am only depicting the shadow. Let 
them visit Flamborough Head, Ailsa Craig, Horn Head, in Ireland, and above all the Island of Handa, off 
the western coast of Sutherland, in the month of June or July, and I venture to say they will, in the first 
place, be awe-struck by tbe scene, and, secondly, highly interested in the sight which will he before them. In 
whatever aspect the Island of Handa be viewed, whetber it be rounded by boat, or the green carpet of turf 
on its summit be traversed on foot, each will have ^special claims to his admiration : to look down from 
these giddy heights into the dark channels and chasms from above excites terror in many beholders ; 
while the roaring waves which, after spanning the Atlantic, dash against the base of the rocks, have dismayed 
many a bold heart when the boatmen, with fearless temerity, have taken the traveller close beneath some of the 
most majestic of Albion’s cliffs. In such places the Kittiwakes build their nests and rear their young ; these 
are their summer homes — the ultima Thule of their happiness ; a narrow ledge of rock, from one to two 
hundred feet high, forms a base for their seaweed nest. At other seasons, the Kittiwake is sailing round 
our coasts, scanning the ocean for its natural food, the surface-swimming fry of fishes, and other marine 
creatures of a lower order, for procuring which it is more especially adapted than those Gulls which prin- 
cipally haunt the shores and inlets ; I say adapted, because its whole structure and the density of its 
plumage are better fitted for a sea life, and clearly point out, if not an affinity to, a mimicry, if I may so term 
it, of the Petrels, a tribe of birds more truly oceanic than the Gulls. Ornithologists will also see a diver- 
gence from one group to the other in its short feet, nearly obsolete bind toe, in its more lengthened wing, in 
its dense plumage, and its more buoyant flight. 
Beyond the British Islands, and apart from our own seas, the Kittiwake has many other, and far distant, 
homes : southward it has been observed in Madeira and on the Mediterranean ; while northward it has been 
found in Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Nova Zembla, Greenland, Spitzbergen, Davis’s Straits, and all 
along the northern parts of America in summer, and its southern coasts in winter. Professor Newton says, 
“ this very common bird appears to frequent the whole of the Spitzbergen coast.” In Parry’s Expedition it 
was observed as far to the northward as they reached — lat. 82° 45' N. “ It is extremely numerous,” says 
Capt. James C. Ross, “ during the summer season, along the west coast of Prince Regent’s Iidet, where, in 
several places that are peculiarly well fitted for breeding-stations, they congregate in inconceivable numbers. 
M^e killed enough to supply our party with several excellent meals, and found them delicious food, perfectly 
free from any unpleasant flavour.” 
