186 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



for such purposes, and reduce by cutting and clearing the over- 

 growths which have sprung up during the last half century, when 

 the wild part of the fenland all about has become ever smaller 

 and smaller under cultivation. For when I visited Wicken on 

 a fair day at the end of May I at once realized how great a 

 change had come o'er the spirit of the scene. Except on the 

 plots where the sedge had been cut already, the whole area 

 presented the appearance of a jungle. A wide grassy drive 

 divides the fen nearest to Wicken village from east to west. 

 But on either side of it there is an almost impenetrable tangle 

 of low shrubby trees, reeds, and coarse grass, by which the 

 more fragile growths have been superseded. This is well enough 

 for reed feeders ; for other insects requiring a more delicate 

 sustenance it may mean starvation. On the largest compact 

 acreage belonging to the Trust these conditions are exaggerated ; 

 it is cut off from the rest of the fen on this side by a wide ditch ; 

 and there is no way of traversing it apparently save by struggling, 

 often breast-high, through the tangle. 



I should suggest, therefore, that so far as this last-mentioned 

 piece is concerned a ride be cleared in continuation, as it were, 

 of the one across the stream to which I have drawn attention, 

 with the Pumping Station as objective in a straight line. Then, 

 towards the centre, ways of similar breadth might be made, 

 intersecting the main ride at right angles. This would afford 

 access to this part without in the least depreciating its uses as a 

 preserve, while the Committee, whose care it is to look after the 

 maintenance of the Trust property, might then determine to 

 what extent the work of clearing on this side also should be 

 effected. 



At present it seems that the dense growths are prejudicial as 

 well to bird and insect life, and in greater degree to plant life. 

 All such clearing, of course, requires to be done with discretion 

 by those employed, and under direct supervision. But the 

 Cambridge Committee are within easy reach, and skilled fen 

 labour is available near at hand. A large number of the trees 

 and bushes which encumber the inner parts might well be 

 eradicated ; their continued encroachment on the fen as such is 

 a real menace. 



Again, it is obvious that if the aquatic and semi-aquatic 

 flora is to survive, and with it the special insects that feed 

 thereon, there must be judicious treatment of the waterways. 

 To take a single instance, the one in fact of which I am most 

 competent to speak from experience elsewhere. In my opinion 

 it is impossible to acclimatise Chrysophanus dispar var. rutilus in 

 Wicken Fen under existing conditions. Rumex hydrolapathum is 

 not the sole plant on which the species feeds, I am aware, but it 

 was the Giant Dock upon which the larvae of the long defunct 

 c^ts^a?- lived, and it is the same Giant Dock upon which the larvsB 



