COUNTRY LIFE
B.E.N.A.
War does not kill British interest in natural history, though it may scotch it. Evidence of this is supplied by the re- emergence of the British Empire Naturalists' Association (Bena) with its Quarterly, which (though shrunk to a miniature size) contains precious and lively information on all sorts of subjects, including birds, butterflies, salt-marshes and the chalk cliffs of Dover. A most pleasing item of news concerns that rare and interesting bird, the ruff, of whose breeding in England we expect to hear. A reeve was seen in Cambridgeshire on October 31st and, more surprisingly, a ruff in Lancashire on October 5th. The most highly favoured county is usually Norfolk. Its opposite number may be said to be Cheshire, which attracts perhaps more rare birds (such as during last August greenshank, spotted redshank, greenland wheatear) than other less happier lands. Its meres, such as that at Tabley, are in some sort a parallel to the Broads of the Eastern Counties or, may one say, the bird-haunted Vlei of South Africa.
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