After enjoying two springs of relative peace in our countryside with exotic birds visiting our gardens and delighting us with their song, there is the danger that a limited form of spring hunting will be allowed this year.

The whole matter was rekindled by the European Court's argument that the autumn season did not really offer an alternative to spring.

A statement like that does not make much sense since it is obvious that a family consisting of the motherbird and two or three of its offsprings amount to more than the same solitary bird which flew to Malta from Africa in the spring. Therefore my adding machine tells me that three is greater than one. Perhaps the EU official who caused all this problem for our government should enrol for a crash course in mathematics.

Furthermore, I doubt whether this official has ever visited our islands. Had he done so he would have seen that Malta has very little countryside and that shooting of birds at four or five in the morning is bound to disturb the sleep of quite a few families. But then the Maltese hunter is renowned for his selfishness. On the other hand, in Europe hunting is allowed in vast areas of vacant countryside where no one hears the shots.

I suppose that the EU also believes the hunters' latest resolution that from now on they will be good boys and will not shoot down any protected birds. Many hunters do not distinguish between birds. "If it flies, shoot it down" is their motto.

Before taking a decision to allow spring hunting our government also should take into consideration the harm this vice is doing to our tourist industry.