Hares are no threat to trees Plural puzzle

RARELY can the words of a gamekeeper have had more truth attached than those of Ronnie Kippen, of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association Committee (“Ban on killing mountain hares will have consequences, warms gamekeeper”, The Herald, March 1); of course it will. The consequences will be that mountain hares will now live as they did for thousands of years and provide food for species like foxes, wildcat, golden eagle and other raptors.

The usual nonsense regurgitated by the blood-sports community about spreading ticks and “damage to trees” by mountain hares indicates the scant knowledge these countryside “guardians” have. There are no records of mountain hares eating “trees”. Heather is their main food and occasionally rushes. Standing on tiptoes, a mountain hare will hardly reach half a meter. They also, as the name suggests, largely inhabit mountains – usually well above the treeline. Bernard Zonfrillo, Glasgow.

I WONDER if someone can help me understand why there seems to be a collective blindness in using plurals that do not end in a letter “s”?

Today’s article by Neil Mackay (“I no longer recognise the corrupted Yes movement”, The Herald, March 2) is a case in point. Three times he used the word strata when he clearly means the singular stratum. Also he, in common with almost all others, uses media as a singular: “The media is hated.”

I am well aware that usage will always trump pedantry but I find this along with the ubiquitous use of “data” as a singular particularly puzzling. We would be unlikely to countenance a sentence like “Dogs is man’s best friend”, but as above “media is hated” and “data is shared” seem quite acceptable.

As I say, more puzzled than pedantic.

Forbes M Dunlop, Glasgow.