Apropos an avian entrance (Letters, September 8 and 12 ), my late colleague, somewhat hard of hearing, once remonstrated with an anxious mother during a home visit, to request that the sibling be kept quiet and stopped interrupting the consultation, to which mum quietly rose, offered him the patient and put a cover over the mynah bird in the corner.

In the interest of privacy Dinah the Mynah, not her real name, shall remain anonymous.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.