COUNTRY LIFE .
THE shires (how many deserve to be called counties?) begin to follow the inspiring lead of Norfolk in the formation of Naturalists' Trusts. The Yorkshire Trust is celebrating a young anniversary by a lecture on " Norfolk Birds and Their Protection " by Major Anthony Buxton, that eminent naturalist who, while allegedly working for the League of Nations at Geneva, carried off a fire-escape for the sake of photographing a honey buzzard's nest! No shire, perhaps, can ever wholly rival Norfolk (though Pembrokeshire can run it close), for the reason that the Broads are quite unique as a lure for a number of sorts of rarer birds, from the harriers to the bearded tit. The Yorkshire Trust, however, has been making an effort to rival the Broads by constructing a great artificial pond. The work (like nationalisation) has been found more difficult than was anticipated, but the idea is plausible. Some of the reservoirs, especially in the Midlands, have proved singularly attractive to birds more or less new to the districts. The Tring reservoirs, which I should prefer to call ponds (a more English word), have become .a naturaliAt's Mecca. Even the banks are a lure, for I once nearly trod on a willow warbler's nest while looking at the crested grebe.
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