GOOD scientists must remain honest to their field of specialisation, and resist bias when making statements to the public. This applies even more stringently to those scientists who have achieved any sort of notoriety, since the general public will generally accept their word as reliable.

We will all remember the provoked suicide of the physicist Dr. Kelly this year. Here is an example of a scientist with integrity, who knew his subject, and knew of his responsibility to the public. How shameful that politicians, whose modus vivendi is the same throughout the world, completely trashed his reputation in order to discredit his expert opinion.

It is with these thoughts in mind, that I wish to remark on the article in today's headed "Pigeons posing health hazard ? Wingate" by Matthew Taylor. I take no issue with Mr. Taylor, since he is a professional reporter, in my experience taking great care to reflect the words of his interviewee accurately and without spin.

It has been some time, however, since I have read such wholesale nonsense presented as scientific fact. All the more is the pity that it emanates from a retired long-serving Government Conservation Officer.

I would appreciate the opportunity to put your readers' mind and those who feed and own domestic birds calling our veterinary hospital at rest.

. Pigeons are exclusively grain eaters (they will naturally eat bread as it is made of wheat). Pigeons always roost very close if not directly at their primary food source. One reason for this is the great sensitivity of their young. Anyone who has tried to raise an orphaned baby pigeon, will know that failure predominates. The young are extremely sensitive to cold, depending on round-the-clock warmth from one of the parents. Feeding requiring 100 pr cent attentiveness from the mother and father. The young are swallowing partially pre-digested, regurgitated grain-based nutrition as often as it is offered.

. Points 1 and 2 help us to understand why the association between man (grain eaters and producers of grain-based foods and producers of heat for their homes in the cooler months), and pigeons is such a close and successful one. Go to any city in the winter, and you will find pigeons pressed close against window ledges for the heat.

. With the exception perhaps of Blackwatch Pass and similar man-made structures, which are very close to human homes and achieve both protection from weather and a higher ambient winter temperature, you will find no pigeons fighting for longtail holes along the exposed Bermuda coastline. There is no food for them. They do not eat fish, or rotting fish or seaweed crabs or anything else from the sea. They are sensitive to high salt content of their food, they drink quite a lot and need secure access to fresh water. (No one throws sardines to the pigeons on Trafalgar Square). If the Audubon Society can produce a genuine photo of the pigeon nesting with chick in a coastal longtail hole, let them produce it for publication in a respected journal, because it will surely be a phenomenon that would interest many eminent zoologists.

Man has lived in close communication with birds ever since his dawning day.

Now to microbiological facts: ALL birds, including the blue ones carry intestinal parasites, bacteria and viruses in their intestines. So do primates, including numero uno ? the human. Whether or not they cause illness in either species is a feature of the health of the individual's immune system. (Therefore man-generated things like p.c.b., dioxin, and heavy metal pollutants and stress, which severely hamper immune response are far more serious health hazards). Some bacteria are in fact essential for our survival and correct digestion. If any animal, including the human were to be raised in a microbe-free environment, it would die. We cannot choose where or when or how our organism interacts with the teeming microscopic world, although there are some long-proven methods for recognising and minimising the numbers of the more harmful ones.

. The Bermuda roof is an excellent structure for outright killings of most microbial and parasite life that hits it. The white colour and intense concentration of the UV light spectrum is to them lethal probably within much less than a minute. If the weather is also dry, desiccation means death to bacteria and viruses and one-celled parasites within seconds to at most minutes. Anyone scanning a slide can tell you that after three minutes of a smear being made, most useful identification of microbes is over.

Treat your tank, as recommended by the Health Department with 1 cup of bleach per thousand gallons of water every 2 to 3 months, or as soon as you buy water, and you can forget any nightmares about salmonella and climbing up top with a bird net or rifle. Even if you did not treat your tank you could forget about the salmonella, unless your tank is close to the cesspit and there is some damage to the tank wall.

You are at much, much greater risk of catching salmonella when you are stressed from overseas shopping, jet-lagged and using airline toilets; eating in restaurants where a human carrier is preparing food and not washing their hands after visiting the toilet; handling uncooked meat originating from an infected animal that has not been cleanly slaughtered.

This is getting too long, so I shall have to save up poultry facts for another time. Perhaps, however, this letter may ? my feathered friends please excuse the expression ? "kill two birds with one stone" and help to illustrate why Dr. E. Brown's recent remark on VSB radio morning news (December 23) in support of Independence for Bermuda is also wholesale rubbish. Did anyone else catch his remark? ". . . even lower life forms seek Independence!"

Dr. Brown, all animals, all life forms are strictly inter-dependent, even the ones you treat.

WHEN England established a colony in Bermuda almost 400 years ago it put in place a Westminster- form legislature and an independent judiciary with the Governor as head of the executive and assumed responsibility for ensuring that the colony would be well governed.

It has been this assurance that has enabled Bermuda to enjoy peace and prosperity throughout its history and which gave confidence in Bermuda to the international community during the past century as a jurisdiction for the development of our tourist and international business economy.

The keystone of any democracy is the independence of the judiciary from executive and legislative interference ? commonly called the separation of powers ? and any decision to appoint a judge should not be made or influenced by any member of either the executive or the legislature.

When the Chief Justice tendered his resignation a few months ago the Governor consulted with the Premier and Leader of the Opposition and then appointed an advisory committee to assist him in appointing a successor Chief Justice. Bermuda is lucky that a person of calibre of Mr. Justice Richard Ground is interested in the position and the decision to appoint him will be welcomed by all right-thinking people.

In so far as the Governor's Advisory Committee supported this decision they are to be congratulated and there is great merit in having such a committee becoming a permanent body to advise the Governor not only in the appointment of the Chief Justice but also all other judicial positions falling within his responsibilities. Obviously no member of either the Legislature or the Executive would be eligible to serve on the Committee.

The behaviour of the Premier in this matter has been embarrassing. He was accorded the courtesy of expressing his opinion in confidence when consulted by the Governor but for him to have tried to pressure the Governor by going to the media and to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and to have written a petulant letter to Mr. Bill Rammell displays an appalling ignorance as to what his function is. He is new in the position and we can hope he will improve with time and experience.

IN the Christmas Eve edition of the , I read Jessie Moniz's column headlined "Bermuda prices ? they're so funny I cannot breathe . . ."

I can only speak for my store, A.S. Cooper & Sons. But 95 per cent of our clothing, both men's and women's, is pegged at the US selling price. We even leave the US tags on the garments so the customers can see them.

I do know that the same clothing brands sold by us are also at US prices at other stores in Bermuda. Many non-clothing brands in our store are sold at US ? or below US ? prices, with some savings of more than 40 per cent.

I suggest, Mr. Editor, that in future Jessie Moniz shop around, check it out for herself, before putting erroneous pen to paper.