104 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



feeding ground among the reaches of hard ground on the Humber 

 flats. When flushed they always separate again. 



There seems to have been a change in the Brent Geese that 

 visit us here. In the old days when the Brent was a regular winter 

 visitor, they were almost all dark-breasted birds, and I only occa- 

 sionally saw a small party of light ones. Nowadays Brent do not 

 often appear, and when they have done so are light-breasted birds. 

 In February 191 2 a flock of about a hundred frequented the muds 

 about Tetney Haven ; these, with the exception of a party of 

 seven, were all light-breasted. The seven dark birds always kept 

 separate, and, if feeding on the same mud bank, always went off 

 alone when put up. 



This year we were visited by a good many flocks of white- 

 breasted birds in January, but not a single dark bird appeared till 

 the first week of March, when a small party of nine came in, 

 followed later by two or three still smaller parties. These never 

 joined the flocks of white-breasted birds, but remained separate till 

 they left in the end of March. Some white-breasted birds remained 

 when I left Lincolnshire on 31st March. 



I have killed a good many of these birds, and I have examined 

 dozens killed by the professional punt-gunners, and have never seen 

 a bird that could not at once be referred to one or the other race. 

 I have seen the brown-breasted birds mentioned by Mr Chapman, 

 but they all belonged to the dark race. I do not say that inter- 

 mediate forms do not occur, but I have not met with them on the 

 Humber. 



The bird figured in the plate in Count S. Alpheraky's work as 

 B. glaucogastra does not represent a typical example, and I do not 

 think I have ever seen a bird like it. It seems to me that these 

 two forms deserve sub-specific recognition at least as well as some 

 that have received it. G. H. Caton Haigh, Grainsby, Lincolnshire. 



The Status of the White-fronted Goose in Orkney. 



The White-fronted Goose is stated in the new B.O.U. list to be 

 "rather plentiful in the Shetlands and Orkneys." I spent several 

 winters in Orkney but never came across the species, although 

 I heard that it sometimes was shot on the spring migration, but at 

 long intervals. H. W. Robinson, Lancaster. 



