TIME FOR DINNER

One summer, a science student at a London University woke up every day at dawn and went to the Arsenal football ground when none was around. He always wore a black top and black shorts and he would scatter birdseed while walking up and down the pitch for about 20 minutes, finishing his visit with a sharp blast from a football whistle. In August, it was time for the first football game of the season and Arsenal were playing Chelsea. The referee tossed a coin and Arsenal decided to kick off. When the referee blew his whistle, however, thousands of birds suddenly descended on to the pitch like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. The game was postponed for an hour as stewards ran around trying to clear the field of the birds. The science student graduated on the basis of his study on the feeding patterns of the common sparrow.

Back to the Animal Magic Home Page