on Knapton Hill.

"I'm both saddened and disgusted,'' Ms Shawnette Purnell said. "When I was eight years old, we picked up rocks and caterpillars, but never bullets.

"I just hate it that he has to experience something like that,'' she said of her son Ryan.

The boy, who is about to start Primary 4 at East End Primary School, said he was riding his bicycle on Spanish Crescent last week when he spotted the bullet after stopping to scare some chickens.

"I just picked it up and thought it was a bullet,'' he said. "I told my neighbour. My neighbour told me to tell my mommy.'' Ms Purnell, who planned to turn the bullet over to Police, said she had no idea where it came from. Possession of firearms and ammunition is illegal in Bermuda.

"This will probably be looked upon as a small matter,'' said Ms Purnell, a teacher. "The public just needs to be more aware that Ber muda is not the paradise that everybody makes it out to be.

While "it definitely should not be seen as just a small matter,'' Ms Purnell said she did not feel there was much Police could do about it. "It's more of a society problem.'' P.c. Stuart Kirkpatrick, firearms officer with Bermuda Police, said .38-calibre weapons are not used by Bermuda Police. Nor are they used by the Bermuda Regiment or a local shooting club.

But .38-calibre guns had been confiscated in Bermuda on occasion. The .38 is a versatile bullet which can also be fired from .357 handguns, he said.

The bullet had a hole drilled through its tip. While P.c. Kirkpatrick had yet to examine it yesterday, he said that could demonstrate an attempt to make it a more deadly bullet, known as a hollow point.

Ryan was in no danger when he picked up the bullet, he said. "If someone was to get a hold of it and throw it very hard on the ground, and it happened to land on the primer with an uneven surface, chances are it could go off,'' he said.

NOT IN BERMUDA? Ryan Purnell, 8, found this .38- calibre bullet on Knapton Hill last week.