2i6 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



All along the west coast of Scotland as far as the Solway 

 the Brent Goose only passes on migration, though a few may 

 remain for a short time in the estuary of the Clyde or Solway 

 banks. On the east coast of Scotland a few sometimes 

 spend a short time on the Little Ferry. The first regular 

 winter resort is the Dornoch Firth, where they are by no 

 means abundant, and found on the south shore west of Tain. 

 Here I have killed a few, and seen many shot by the 

 professional gunners. They were all white-breasted birds. 



The main resort of Brent Geese in Scotland in the winter 

 are the Cromarty and Moray Firths (in the latter west of 

 Fort George). I have here killed a large number myself, 

 and seen man) 7 killed by the professional gunners. They 

 were invariably only white-breasted birds. I don't remember 

 ever to have seen an "intermediate" specimen, and never 

 once a dark slate-grey specimen. A few go up the Beauly 

 Firth at night, but these waters are too narrow and danger- 

 ous for such shy fowl. 



Coming south we find no grounds suitable to Brent Geese 

 until we reach the Tay estuary. Here I have killed them as 

 early as 28th August, and frequently in winter, but their 

 numbers are always few. All of those I have seen there 

 were dark-breasted slate-grey birds with an occasional 

 intermediate specimen. I have also shot a few on the Eden 

 estuary, north of St Andrews, where small parties are usually 

 found. These also were all dark-breasted birds. On the 

 Forth I have seen too few to speak definitely of their colour, 

 but six that I killed one day in 1887 were all dark-breasted 

 birds. 



Doubtless it is the case that both light- and dark-breasted 

 birds breed together in Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and 

 Kolguev, but we are now presented by a curious fact, if my 

 observations are correct, that in certain firths and estuaries 

 on the eastern coast of Scotland there is sharp differentiation 

 between the winter habitat of the white-breasted and the 

 dark-breasted Brent Geese. 



It is more than probable that our Scottish Brent Geese 

 are birds bred in Northern Europe, although the white- 

 breasted ones seem to differ in no way from examples I have 



