86 
ALLEN’S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
Range in Great Britain.— The Kittivvake is a thoroughly in- 
digenous species with us, being found on all our coasts. In 
summer it resorts to certain headlands and rocky islands to 
breed, and in some places it docs so in enormous numbers. 
U ell-known colonies of the Kittiwakc are those of Lundy Islaiul 
the larnc-s, Idamborough, the ISass Rock, and they arc especially 
numerous in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles. In Ireland Mr. 
Usshcr says, the Kittiwake breeds, often in large colonie^ on 
the precipices of the coasts and islands of Donegal, Antrim 
Dublin, Wc.xford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, and Sligo! 
■ outside the British Islands.— The present species is found 
in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions, from the farthest point 
yet visited by man to the north of Spitsbergen and up to 8i° 
40 in Smith Sound, down to the north-west of France, the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic side of North America, 
ana the Kuril Islands in the Pacific. 
In winter it visits the Mediterranean, and the inland waters 
0 lAirope down to the Caspian, the Canaries, Bermuda, and 
both sides of America to about 35° N. Lat. The record 
of ciicumpolar continuity is complete between the North Cape 
and Bering Strait, by way of Siberia and the islands to the 
north, while in Arctic America it is only defective as regards 
the small interval between Prince Albeit Island and Point 
Barrow (//. Saunders). 
Habits. —Many descriptions of the colonies of Kittiwakes have 
been published in works on British Ornithology. One of the 
best accounts of some of the great assemblages of this Gull is 
that of the late Dr. Alfred Brehm, in his essay on the 
“ Bird-Bergs of Lapland.” * He writes •— ^ 
“ Different again is the life and activity on the bergs chosen 
as brooding-places by the Kittiwakes. Such a hfil is the 
promontory Swartholm, high up in the north between the 
Laxen and the Porsanger fjords, not far from the North Cape 
1 knew already how these Gulls appear on their breeding-places' 
Faber, with his excellent knowledge of the birds of the North 
has depicted it, as usual, in a few vivid words : ’ 
. * North Pole to Equator : Studies of Wild Life and Scenes 
m many lands , . Translation, by M. R. Thomson and J. A, 
Thomson. (BlacUie « Son ; 1896. •’ 
