THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLVIL] JULY, 1914. [No. 614 



WICKEN FEN: ITS CONSERVATION FOR 

 ENTOMOLOGY. 



By H. Rowland-Bkown, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Plate 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 " 



BNTOM. — JULY, 1914. Q 



