REPORT OF THE CLUB'S DELEGATE. 105
that the best use of much of the land had been proved over
hundreds of years, land which was arable in the middle ages
was arable a hundred years ago and was still cultivated to-day
Similarly the poorest land had always been woodland or heath.
The greatest changes, from arable to grass, had taken place on
land of intermediate quality. This had a bearing on the planning
of land for the future, as any radical change from the present
should be scientifically justified and the work watched by local
societies throughout the country.
Mr. J. L. Holland then gave an account of a survey of
Northamptonshire which was a pioneer effort undertaken for
purely educational purposes, special stress being laid on social
study in geographical work.
The concluding subject before the Conference was an account
of a regional study in the Cotswolds carried out by members
of the LePlay Society. Miss C. A. Simpson, who brought this
forward, devoted a few introductory remarks to the aims of the
LePlay Society, which may be summed up as co-operative work
in regional survey by the study of Place, Work and Folk. She
then showed how this kind of work had been done in and near
a Cotswold valley, and how it had been made the basis of training
in regional survey in all its branches.
NOTES: ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Polecat al Great Waltham.—Mr. Beauchamp Tufnell writes to inform
me that about the 15th of this month (January, 1936) their keeper killed
a polecat at Langleys. "I have just been down to make sure, and there
is no doubt about it. It is a male. I had no idea there were any about
now. I have asked the son of our old keeper if he had heard of his
father (who was here 50 years) ever killing one, and I understand that
one was killed here before the War."—Alfred Hills.
Hen-Harrier and Scandinavian Lesser Black-Backed Gull in Essex.
Mr. Norman H. Joy reports (in British Birds, January, 1936) that, on
November 8, 1935, he saw a female Hen-Harrier (Circus c. cyaneus) and
a Scandinavian Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus f. fuscus), both flying
near Burnham-on-Crouch. These records are noteworthy, especially
the latter one, since this Gull has only twice before been identified for
Essex.—Ed.
An Uncommon Rust Fungus at Canvey Island.—A small patch of
young plants of Bupleurum tenuissimum L., was discovered on June nth,
1935, near the sea wall on Canvey Island; these plants were heavily