THE ENTOMOLOGIST 
Vou. XLVII.1 Uy 114. [No. 614 
=< 
WICKEN FEN: ITS CONSERVATION FOR 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
By H. Rownanp-Browy, M.A., F.E.S. 
(Puate IV.) 
As no doubt many of our readers are aware, a great part 
of Wicken Fen has been taken over by the National Trust, and 
is now being administered by that body. A guardian has been 
appointed on the spot, and the Entomological Society of London 
is contributing a not disproportionate share of the necessary 
wage fund. As nominated member of the Society upon the 
Council of the Trust, I think, therefore, that it may not be out 
of place if I offer a few suggestions on the subject from the 
entomologist’s point of view, and at the same time attempt to 
give some idea of the work being done for the preservation and 
upkeep of this Mecca of the British collector. 
In the first place, it should be remembered that, while the 
National Trust property amounts in all to as much as 249 acres 
of the entire 300 acres or so of the area comprised in Wicken 
Fen, their holding is neither coherent nor coterminous. Within 
the area lying nearest to Wicken village there are several 
important strips which break up and divide it, and it stands to 
reason that this patchwork arrangement is a great hindrance to 
the work of the conservators. Visitors this year, provided with 
the needful permits, will find that the Trust lands have been 
delimited by means of black iron posts marked with the initials 
N. T. And here I may remark that the object of the Trust is 
not to close the parts of the fen which belong to them against 
bona fide naturalists, botanists, and other scientific workers, but 
to preserve for future generations, as far as possible, the fauna 
and flora characteristic of the locality, while possibly in the 
future helping to restore to the fen some at least of those species 
which, either by over-collecting, or much more likely by altered 
nature conditions, have completely disappeared, or nearly so. 
The question then arises how far it is desirable to ‘“‘ garden ”’ 
ENTOM.—JULY, 1914. Q 
