THE PROBLEM OF ADAPTATION 99 



tion between pure and interpretive morphology will hope and 

 feel that he has, by setting the facts in perspective and 

 evaluating them, given a fresh impetus to the investigation 

 of animal structures and adaptations looked on as results of 

 experiments in living. J. R. 



The Brent Goose in Bute. So far as I am aware no record 

 of the Brent Goose in Bute has yet been published. In the Bute 

 Natural History Museum there are three specimens, all of the pale- 

 breasted form, labelled respectively, "Rothesay Bay, 1910"; 

 "Ardmaleish, April 1910"; and " Rhubodach, April 1910." These 

 three localities are on the east side of the island, between Rothesay 

 and the Kyles of Bute. In all of these specimens the breast is 

 very pale, and the white patches on the neck are small, separated in 

 front by quite an inch. Indeed, when these birds are looked at 

 from directly in front the white patches are not visible. Prior to 

 this winter these are the only records for this species in Bute that I 

 know. 



On 22nd December 1916, during the severe frost, I came on a 

 flock of eight Brents on the shore at St Ninian's Bay, on the west 

 side of the island. Many writers, including Payne-Gallwey, have 

 described the Brent as being extremely wild, and never going on 

 land except when wounded, but these birds were grazing on marshy 

 ground well beyond the high-water mark, and were distinctly tame, 

 allowing me to walk within a hundred yards of them, and examine 

 them through a telescope. They walked in a compact flock, 

 grazing quietly, and taking little notice of me, except to walk in the 

 opposite direction. I spent some time trying to get within gunshot, 

 but there was very little cover, and when I went too close to them 

 they always rose and flew slowly for a distance of a hundred yards 

 or so. I came to the conclusion that I could not get them, and 

 fired at a turnstone, but even this did not drive them away. 

 Finally I succeeded, after half a dozen attempts, in getting behind 

 a rock just within shot, and fired as they rose. Two of them 

 came down, one at the edge of the tide, which I got without any 

 difficulty, but the other one a considerable distance out to sea, and 

 I did not get it till a few days later when I found it dead on the 

 shore. 



I heard some weeks later that a small flock of these birds was 

 seen on Onich Loch, near St Ninian's Bay, about this time, by one 



