Nature's way?

Madam, – Many animals prey on other animals. Choosing to ignore this fact does not change it.

Madam, – Many animals prey on other animals. Choosing to ignore this fact does not change it.

Would James and Susan McCauley (June 23rd) have been less distressed if your splendid series of photographs (June 21st) had shown the heron hunting and eating a fish? A robin eating a worm? A thrush eating a snail? – Yours, etc,

FÍONA TIPPLE,

Mount Anville Wood,

Goatstown, Dublin 14.

Madam, – Lovers of wild life and birds in particular expressed horror at the graphic images of slaughter of defenceless ducklings. The irony seems lost on the lovers of birds that the heron too is a bird and has a right to live as nature intended. The photograph caught a magnificent demonstration of how real birds live in nature. Truly beautiful and powerful photographs (June 21st). – Yours, etc,

PAUL KEARNEY,

Beaumont Woods,

Dublin 9.