With reference to Aldo Azzopardi’s letter (The Sunday Times, September 30) in answer to mine on intelligent birds I would like to comment on his statement “that my choice of an eagle coming to its nest was not a happy one”.

He was right. However, the choice of illustration of an eagle was not mine but the newspaper’s. I am well aware of the fact that in a nest in many cases (but not always) it is the fittest offspring which survive.

I would also like to correct Mr Azzopardi’s reportage of what I said, namely that we humans are not as intelligent as birds. What I wrote was different. I stated that after tests had been carried out at Cambridge University it was found that birds are as intelligent as seven year old children. After this age the human mind proved to be superior to a bird’s brain. Therefore in my opinion some of our hunters should not be allowed to murder creatures which were more intelligent than them.

Furthermore it is not only I, as Mr Azzopardi mentioned, who would enjoy watching hoopoes in our gardens but 99 per cent of Maltese and 100 per cent of our tourists would love to see birds on our lawns and flying in the air as one sees in Corfu and other Mediterranean islands. Unfortunately this is not possible due to the violent acts of these troglodytes with guns who do not even have the intelligence of three year old children.