RUDDY ducks are not harmless creatures as Graham Cannon (Letters, August 7) seems to imagine.

Nor is the reason for the culling of them quite as he puts it.

Some five years ago, 'Birds,' the magazine of RSPB and other similar publications, gave out information that the ruddy duck population in Britain was increasing at an alarming rate.

It appears that it is a native of Spain and other Mediterranean countries, but a few years ago, like the grey squirrel, some of them appeared in Britain. Since then, its numbers have increased, threatening our wild duck population because it is an aggressive creature and capable of mating with our own duck population and if the problem is not sorted out, the only breed of duck we will be left with is the ruddy duck.

So it is not a case of our ducks being a nuisance to Spain's ducks, but the other way round. It would appear that Mr Cannon has got the story wrong and when he writes that this is likely to cost you and me £5 million, I would ask, where on earth does this figure come from?

ALBERT MORRIS, Clement View, Nelson.