28 APRIL 1950, Page 22

Inter-Shire Visits

A properly constituted trust has this advantage over a more loosely defined society, that it can keep mopping up desirable sites, as the Norfolk example triumphantly proves. However, the societies do well in most counties and begin the excellent habit of exchanging visits. The Hert- fordshire naturalists, for example, recently visited Yorkshire and made acquaintance with the now famous Ascham Bog—usually called "The Bog "—where students, young and old; are almost continuously studying insects and flowers as well as birds. One may hope that in so extensive and various a shire the Trust will go on to acquire other rich sanctuaries. It has been discovered there, as in Stafford, that flowers are often in greater need of protection than birds. They cannot migrate ; and in the case of a few rarities seem to flourish only in very particular spots. They need an absolute optimum of conditions. Most birds, and indeed insects, however local, are rather more adaptable.