6 MARCH 1915, Page 14

[TO Too Emma OF TEE " Szaorrrox."] Sin,--Are not all

birds good sentinels P I once spent a

pleasant hour in Devizes Gaol with a notorious burglar. He told me that he had given up a well-planned burglary of a large house in Wiltshire because there was a rookery close to the house. He said that rooks outside a house would give the alarm long before dogs inside. And is not the moorhen or coot—I forget which—hated by the wild-duck shooter because it gives early notice of his approach-P—I am, Sir, &c.,