12 MAY 1933, Page 13

A somewhat similar question (though the answer cannot be the

same) was put to me many years ago by a wanderer along the South Coast. He found a line of white stones arranged along the cliff at a foot or so from the edge. It Was at first supposed that they were purposely laid to warn

people of the edge . when the light was dim ; but it was eventually proved (by some members of Roedean School) that the authors were jackdaws. They were tunnelling the chalk cliffs for their nesting holes . and never :dropped the excavated lumps, but flew to the cliff's .edge and there got rid of the morsels. Can it be that there is some delectable food, such as ants, in the gravel path and that birds, acting like the plover we call a Turnstone, peck up the concealing stones and drop them on the edge or flick them over ? Starlings and pheasants toss obstacles aside in a surprising way when drilling for food, though the grass itself is their proper arena. I know one garden grass. path full of holes made by pheasants digging up, with the beak, both buttercup and plantain.