THE CROWN OF THORNS
A card from a Glasgow reader asks about birds eating blackberries, and remarks that although the writer gathered some 200 lb. of blackberries each war year, he never saw a sign of birds touching them. There appears to be a legend about blackberry thorns, if what this reader says is right. `Some hold that the crown of thorns was made from them,' he says, 'and this may be why some people do not touch them. A padre in France who was walking along with sonic priests picked and ate some blackberries and, aghast, they told him of the legend. The padre said that he had been in the Holy Land and never saw a bramble bush there. Thus they too, reassured, helped themselves.' Blackbirds in particular are notoriously fond of soft fruit, and I think they are hardly likely to ignore the best fruit of the hedgerow, but I cannot say that 1 have actually seen them on a blackberry bush.
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