NOTES 91 



2. Phalacrocorax carbo subcormoramis (Brehm). Smaller, with 

 smaller bill; underside steel-black, with a distinct greenish gloss. 

 This smaller form is a native of Central Europe, north to the 

 Baltic, west to Holland and coast of France, south to the 

 Mediterranean, the Danube Valley, Black Sea basin, and eastwards 

 to Central Asia. 



Dr Hartert remarks that it will be interesting to compare adult 

 British specimens, especially British-bred birds, with a view to 

 finding out if both forms occur. Some of the specimens he 

 has examined seem to be intermediate, others indistinguishable 

 from sitbcormoraiius, but most adult breeding birds, and probably 

 all, belong to carbo. 



The Light-bellied Variety of the Brent Goose in Fife. 



With reference to the paper just published in the Scottish 

 Naturalist, it may be of interest to record that I saw at close 

 quarters a Brent Goose of the light-bellied form on 3rd 

 February 191 7. It was swimming about just off the rocks 

 below Cambo, between Kingsbarns and the East Neuk. I got 

 within twenty yards of it, and by waving my arms induced it 

 to fly ; but it only flapped to a rock about the same distance 

 away, and stood there, so I had an excellent view of it. This 

 tameness, so unusual in a Goose, leads me to think that it had 

 been damaged in some way, or was feeling ill. Miss Baxter, 

 who was with me, helped me with the identification of this 

 interesting visitor. Magdalen Erskine, Cambo. 



On the Capture of a Meadow-pipit by a Common 

 Gull. It may be of interest to record that on 13th June 19 16, 

 as I was crossing some open moorland, four adult Common Gulls 

 passed me in full chase after a Meadow-pipit which was dodging 

 and vainly trying to escape its pursuers ; they, however, rapidly 

 gained on it. Eventually, the Meadow-pipit dropped exhausted 

 into some long heather, but the foremost Gull pounced upon 

 it, and when last seen, was carrying the unfortunate Meadow- 

 pipit away in its bill. Annie C. Jackson, Swordale. 



Notes on the Recovery of Ringed Birds. In British 

 Birds, vol. x., No. 9, Mr H. F. Witherby gives a short account 

 of some of the results of ringing Song-thrushes, Blackbirds, 

 Lapwings, and Woodcock. Of these, he deals only with those 



