In article ,
Janet Baraclough writes:
| The message
| from "Dwayne" contains these words:
|
| If the birds eat them, they aren't poisonous, unless you see a lot of dead
| birds.
|
| That's wrong advice. Birds and humans have very different digestive
| systems so what is poisonous to one species may be harmless to the
| other.
|
| The commonest examples in Britain are yew berries and fruits of some
| members of the nighshade family; birds eat both with no ill effects, but
| they are poisonous to humans.

That is true.

| Other examples are birds that can safely
| feed on carrion (raw rotting meat) and the faeces of other species.
| Humans can't.

That isn't. We have a scavenger's digestive system, and are one
of the relatively few mammals that can eat rotting food. While
uncooked carrion and faeces are a bit more of a problem for us
than mere overripe fruit, we are pretty resistant to the problems
that they cause.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.