Page 10 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS.

THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS.

THE POSITION OF DECOYS IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS.

    It is pretty certain that Decoys for catching ducks were first used in Lincolnshire and Essex, and that the neighbouring counties of Northampton, Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Yorkshire followed suit.
    The stronghold of Decoys was at and near Holland Fen, Spalding, Crowland, and Lincoln, and more than anywhere else between Wainfleet and Boston, some of the best being at Friskney.
    This is not a matter of surprise when we consider the intercourse that formerly existed between Holland and the harbours of the Wash by means of small trading vessels, as related by local historians of the day.
    So it was also with Essex and Suffolk, for the Dutch were continually trading to the rivers and ports of those counties long ago, both as smugglers, fishermen, and merchants.
    On seeing the immense number of wildfowl that haunted the fens of Lincoln, both near the coast as well as inland, the Dutch naturally either suggested the making of Decoys in their own interests, or for the friends they visited. They doubtless saw that the wholesale method of driving the ducks was, through various causes, such as drainage and protective laws, going out of use-a method no doubt originally taught by themselves, as the name implied. But they had given up the system too, probably on account of its only being feasible occasionally; it also required a host of men and boats, the profits were shared by a mob; in addition to this, the fowl were taken when not full-grown or in good condition. They therefore taught, or at all events assisted, the fenmen to construct Decoys on a much improved principle, and a far more remunerative one to their individual owners.
    But unlike the compact Lincolnshire Decoys, the Decoys of Norfolk till the end of the last century consisted of extensive lakes. To these were attached several pipes, according to the success expected, or afterwards encountered.
    These large straggling lakes were, however, ill adapted for Decoys. Very likely they had been previously used for driving fowl, as was the case in Lincolnshire, and that the pipes, when the people took to enticing ducks up them in winter, instead of driving them into them in late summer, had by degrees been greatly reduced in size.