WHALES STRANDED ON SCOTTISH COASTS IN I916 103 



These comprise seven Porpoises, one Common Dolphin, 

 one White - beaked Dolphin, one White -sided Dolphin, 

 three Bottle-nosed Dolphins, one Bottle-nosed Whale, one 

 Sowerby's Whale, one Cuvier's Whale, one Sperm Whale, 

 one Common Rorqual, and two Lesser Rorquals. Space 

 does not allow us to do more than refer briefly to the 

 more interesting of these occurrences, namely : 



A Cuvier's Whale {Ziphius cavirostris), on the Cornish Coast, on 



7th June, and believed to be the first of its kind recorded 



for England. 

 A Sowerby's Whale {Mesoplodon bidens), from Lincolnshire, on 



7th September. 

 A White-sided Dolphin (Lagenorkynchus acutus), on the coast of 



Mayo, on 9th June. 

 A young Sperm Whale (Physeter catodon), with uncut teeth and 



presumably a "sucker," stranded on the coast of Galway, on 



4th September. It was 18 feet long. 



Pale-breasted Brent Goose in Ayr, Renfrew, and Bute. 



The Brent Goose comes annually in considerable flocks, varying 

 in size up to 500 birds or a little more, to Fence and Poteath bays, 

 near Fairlie. I first made the acquaintance of the bird at this 

 locality twenty years ago. The birds seen that season (from the 

 beginning of January to early March) all belonged, I considered, to 

 the pale-breasted form. I was then, and have been since, on the 

 watch for the dark-breasted form as well, but I have not recognised 

 it yet, nor do I know of its occurrence, anywhere in "Clyde." As 

 mentioned by Misses Rintoul and Baxter in the February number 

 of the Scottish Naturalist, p. 26, I saw a solitary example of the 

 pale-breasted form at Balgray Dam, East Renfrew, on 1st January 

 191 1. In the Bute Museum, Rothesay, are three examples, which 

 I have seen, from Port Bannatyne, Island of Bute ; these also are 

 pale-breasted. John Robertson, Cathcart. 



Light- and Dark-breasted Brent Geese. I have just been 

 reading Mr Abel Chapman's paper, in the Scottish Naturalist, on 

 Brent Geese, but I cannot agree with his conclusions as to the two 

 races. Speaking entirely of the Humber, I find the two races 

 always arrive separately and do not associate except when feeding, 

 when all the flocks become mixed on account of the small extent of 



