OF FIELD CLUBS 167
ter of its own, in other words, it should be the journal of a local
natural history society. Sometimes papers by professional
workers appear in such journals, submitted it is to be feared, not
because the journal is their appropriate home or because of any
special excellence, but because they do not reach the standard
required by leading scientific journals. I should like to think
that all such papers will be politely but ruthlessly returned to
their authors. Of course, I do not intend to imply that all
papers submitted by the professional worker are of this type,
for such workers have made important contributions to the
journals of local natural history societies : but I do want to
emphasise that the policy of a local journal should be local,
embracing the area covered by its society and in this role it
should aim at perfection—may it never attain it. Now, if you
put this thesis to many editors of local journals they would agree
wholeheartedly, but they would ask, where are we to obtain this
material, which we know well enough is what we ought to pub-
lish ? The answer to this seems perfectly clear—if the material
is not available, don't publish the journal : no editor should be
in the position of having to fill up with inappropriate or second-
rate stuff. To which an editor would reply, but the journal is the
thing which keeps the subscriptions coming in. If that is so, and
I fear it is at least partially true, it seems to indicate a false sense
of values. In our own Club the excursions and indoor meetings,
in entertainment value alone, are cheap at a guinea a year—it
should not be necessary to throw in a magazine as additional bait.
Here the argument would shift to members who cannot get to
meetings ; I will attempt to deal with that problem later. For the
moment I want to suggest that if members cannot keep their
house journal regularly supplied with material the appearance
of a new part of the journal should wait until they can : it should
not appear at regular intervals regardless of what material is
available. The editor is appointed by the council to attend to
publication of the periodical, and I feel strongly that it is not his
duty to supply the necessary material: that should be the
responsibility of the club as a whole.
I should like to see the Essex Field Club adopt the system of
recorders which functions in some societies, so that there might
be recognised specialists to refer to when members needed help.
As far as this is practicable a recorder should compile an annual
report, which should be a record of occurrences or changes of
animals and plants belonging to his special group in the area over
which the Club works. Bird reports of this type are issued by
more than one local society, but I hope the Essex Field Club
will extend the scope beyond birds.
Another and very important branch of our Club's work