16 APRIL 1954, Page 12

Recent news from America told how the alarm note of

the female starling is being used to frighten these birds from timber. It seems a wonderful device and like all good ideas it is something astonishingly simple. Perhaps—the method will eventually be ex- tended until farmers can set up record- players to give the alarm note of rooks and jays. The only difficulty might be in the breakdown of the equipment which would result in all the birds driven from adjoining properties gathering where the machine failed !