covered them with masking tape and shaving cream.

The horrific act was discovered by Department of Agriculture & Fisheries employee, Mr. Steven DeSilva, as he made his regular check of bluebird boxes at Ferry Point Park in St. George's.

Government officials are now looking for the perpetrators, whose deed follows last week's The Royal Gazette report of smashed bluebird eggs and dead chicks at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton.

"I check as many boxes as possible during the day,'' said Mr. DeSilva. "As I approached the box in question, I opened it and found the nest nearly covered over with a foam. I first thought it was a spittle bug but after I touched it and smelled it I found it was menthol shaving cream.

"Someone had to open the box and push on them the ball of masking tape and spray cream,'' he said. "The parents probably came back and tried to get them out, but it was too late. The five chicks were all dead.'' "This is probably the most graphic incident, I've ever seen,'' he added.

"Because this is a public park, my bosses are looking into it as well as it comes under the Misuse of Parks Act.'' Mr. DeSilva last week asked parents to educate their children on the importance of protecting the bluebird, after the department suspected that school kids were responsible for the disturbance of bluebird boxes and the destruction of four eggs and five chicks.

He said that the approximately 130 pairs of bluebirds nesting throughout the Island were constantly plagued by such factors as urbanisation and the threat of other birds such as the European starling and the Asian sparrow.

"(Children) should know that the longtail and the bluebird are ours,'' he said at the time. "They weren't introduced to the Island by someone homesick for his homeland. It's our responsibility to look after them. Their existence is in jeopardy. If it were not for people erecting boxes, they would surely be extinct.'' HELPLESS VICTIMS -- Mr. Steven DeSilva, of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Parks, shows five dead bluebird chicks he found at Ferry Point Park in St. George's yesterday after vandals covered them with masking tape and shaving cream.