I NORMALLY try not to rise to the bait of the letters page, but B Welburn’s magpie letter of May 26 has to be addressed.

Magpies are not murderers. No bird is, as murder is a human crime.

Avoid anthropomorphising. Magpies, like any other predator, kill to feed themselves and their young. Predation, not murder. Or does B Welburn also consider it murder when that Blackbird kills worms, flies, caterpillars, damselflies and other invertebrates to feed its own young?

Is it murder when predators like sparrowhawks kill magpies, also for food?

As for the issue of protection, they seem to be doing well now as they have recovered from extensive culling through the 1930s to 1950s. Their numbers may seem high, but that’s because our memory is of an artificial low. Nature strives for its own balance, our intervention is not needed or welcomed. It’s worth remembering that, and remembering no part of an ecosystem is “good for nothing”.

David Craven, New Earswick, York.