o pick out anything eatable in the refuse
that may be thrown away. They breed in great flocks on the steep
escarpments in some separate part of the fowl-fells, in connection
with which, it is evident that the kittiwakes always endeavour to
choose the best places of the fell--those that are most inaccessible
to the fox and are best protected against bad weather. Among the
birds of the north the kittiwake is the best builder; for its nest
is walled with straw and mud, and is very firm. It juts out like a
great swallow's nest from the little ledge to which it is fixed.
Projecting ends of straw are mostly bent in, so that the nest, with
its regularly rounded form, has a very tidy appearance. The interior
is further lined with a soft, carefully arranged layer of moss,
grass and seaweed, on which the bird lays three to four
well-flavoured eggs. The soft warm underlayer is, however, not
without its inconvenience; for Dr. Stuxberg during the voyage of
1875 found in such a nest no fewer than twelve kinds of insects,
among them _Pulex vagabundus_, Bohem. in nine specimens, a beetle,
a fly, &c.

The ivory gull, called by Fr. Martens "Rathsherr," the Councillor,
is found, as its Swedish name indicates, principally out at sea in
the _pack_, or in fjords filled with drift-ice. It is a true
ice-bird, and, it may almost be said, scarcely a water-bird at all,
for it is seldom seen swimming on the surface, and it can dive as
little as its relatives, the glaucous gull and the kittiwake. In
greed it competes with the fulmar. When any large animal has been
killed among the drift-ice, the ivory gull seldom fails to put in an
appearance in order to quench its hunger with flesh and blubber. It
consumes at the same time the excrements of the seal and the walrus,
on which account from three to five ivory gulls may often be seen
sitting for a long time round a seal-hole, quiet and motionless,
waiting patiently the arrival of the seal (Malmgren).

[Illustration: RARE NORTHERN GULLS. A. Sabine's Gull
(Larus Sabinii, Sabine) B. Ross's Gull. (Larus Rossii, Richaids.) ]

The proper breeding places of this bird scarcely appear to be yet
known. So common as it is both on the coasts of Spitzbergen from the
Seven Islands to South Cape and on the north coast of Novaya Zemlya
and America, its nest has only been found twice, once in 1853 by
McClintock at Cape Krabbe in North America in 77 deg. 25' N.L.,
the second time by Dr. Malmgren at Murchison Bay, i