28 JUNE 1930, Page 17

A BIRD SCARER.

Whether or no it is due to hard times I cannot say, but there is reason to believe that the Continental—especially Italian and Spanish—habit of eating small birds, is growing in England. Some of us the other day found a man with a gun defending a cherry orchard from raiders. He said that he sold all the birds he killed for food ; but that in the case of starlings (which seem to be developing a taste for fruit as their numbers increase) he always removed the backbone before selling, as this bone was poisonous ! It is news to me that the starling is eaten at all ; but is there any foundation for this theory of poisonous vertebrae ? It is curious that many country people refuse to eat either moorhen or coot.