{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



/ 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 62.] 1917 [February. 



ON THE PALE-BREASTED OR AMERICAN 

 BRENT GOOSE IN SCOTLAND. 



By Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul, F.Z.S., H.M.B.O.U., and 

 Evelyn V. Baxter, F.Z.S., H.M.B.O.U. 



The authenticated occurrences of the American Brent 

 Goose {Branta bernicla glancogastra (Brehm)) in Scotland 

 are few, and on going into the records of this and the typical 

 form B. b. bernicla, we were surprised to find in how few 

 instances they had been differentiated. We have for some 

 time been working at a Topographical Avifauna of Scotland, 

 which we hope to publish at the end of the war, and 

 finding the Scottish distribution of the Brent Geese so 

 inextricably entangled, we decided to ask Scottish naturalists 

 and sportsmen to help us by sending notes of the occurrence 

 and relative abundance of the two races. 



In the new B.O.U. List of British Birds, the respective 

 British distribution of the two forms is given as follows : 

 The Brent Goose is " a winter visitor, numerous in the 

 Shetlands and Orkneys and on the east and south coasts 

 of Great Britain. In the Hebrides and on the western 

 shores it is much less numerous and more irregular. It 

 is very common on the coasts of Ireland, and is seldom met 

 with on inland waters unless wounded." Other authorities, 

 however, say that the Brent Goose is scarce in Shetland, 

 62 D 



