What are the holes at the tip of this boot?

[Booter_Scooter]

A bit of Background:

I recently wanted to get a new pair of boots to finally replace my 5 year old Chippewas, and let me tell you that it’s such a pain to find boots that fit my bill.
I settled for a pair of Cheaney Jarrows and I finally received my boots after them messing up once and sending me a pair of Oxfords at first.

So I opened the box and saw these holes at/under the tip of the boot and I have no idea what they are. Are these the holes of the inner welt? Or is this a mistake that happened while lasting/stitching the inner welt on? It also kinda seems like they wanted to seal/fill them with something.
I’d love an explanation if anyone has one, because Cheaney didn’t provide any.

Needless to say that I requested a return(they also had quite a big scuff on the heel) and the customer support was really nice and promptly sent a return label, so everything is fine there.
But I would still love to hear an explanation for this, because I have never seen anything like it before.