File:Britain's birds and their nests (1910) (14568687599).jpg

Identifier: britainsbirdsthe00thom (find matches)
Title: Britain's birds and their nests
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Thomson, Arthur Landsborough, Sir, 1890- Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur), 1861-1933 Rankin, George
Subjects: Birds -- Great Britain Birds -- Nests
Publisher: London : W. & R. Chambers
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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e a staple articleof diet. But the proportion of wire-worms, crane-flylarvae, and other pests is large enough to do more thanbalance all the harm the bird is responsible for. Inspite of this obviously favourable verdict, a recommenda-tion was made that legal protection be removed for atime, lest an abnormal increase take place and the speciesbe driven to more harmful ways of supporting existence!This inconsistent recommendation has met with the severecriticism it deserved, but has nevertheless been acted onin Cumberland and elsewhere. A more authoritativereport on the food of birds has since been publishedfor the Board of Agriculture, and in this paper theopinion that the Black-headed Gull is on the wholedecidedly favomable to man is emphatically stated. Itis to be hoped that this may have the effect of havingthe species reinstated as a protected bird, for meanwhile,we know, an amount of egg-looting is going on at thegulleries which cannot but have, in a few years, adisastrous effect.
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Plate 14. KIT TIW A K E—Rissa Mdactyla, Length, 15-5 in. ; wing, 12 in. (Gavi^ : Laridje ; Larinas.)F 42 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 43 THE KITTIWAKE (Rissa tridactyla).Plate 14. All the Gulls we have so far treated of belong to thetypical gi-oup ; but the Kittiwakes form a small group bythemselves. Oui species is characterised by the possessionof only three toes, the hind-toe being generally absent,though occasionally appearing as the merest rudiment.Other characteristics are the small size, the greenish-yellowbeak, the black legs, and the black-tipped primary quills.In winter the back of the neck is grayish. Fish and othermarine animals form the Kittiwakes food, and it candive well and s\\im under water. The name Kittiwakeis supposed to represent the birds cry. Although by no means confined to high latitudes, theKittiwake is circumpolar in its distribution; examplesfrom the Pacific—where there is also a red-legged species—more frequently show a i-udimentary hind-toe thans

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