BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS | |
| He rented a considerable extent of land, mostly marsh and low wet meadow, in the vicinity of his Decoy, so as to keep off curious trespassers and to assist the natural solitude of its surroundings. He helped to support his home by grazing a few sheep or cattle on the dryer portions of the small oasis of fenland he occupied. In the summer he cleaned out his Decoy, mended the banks and screens, and put his nets and pipes in order. His harvest of birds began in October and ended in March. During this period he was ever on the watch both outside and inside his Decoy; he lived, as it were, in a glass house, so that he could see on all sides and at all times what was going on. He matched his brains and experience against the cunning and wildness of the fowl he sought, and he usually won the contest. When he died all he knew was handed down to his assistant in the Decoy, most likely a near relative. All his successor learnt was vivá voce, or by watching his manoeuvres as he attended him in the Decoy from year to year So from father to son were the Decoymen of past generations. Is it, then, to be wondered that, under these circumstances, so little is now generally known of ancient Decoys and Decoying? We do not expect a conjurer to divulge his tricks, yet as loth would an old Decoyman be to disclose his artifices of Decoying. | |
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THE DERIVATION OF THE WORD DECOY. | |
| Sir Henry Spelman, who died in 1641, says, "Sir W. Wodehouse (who lived in the reign of James I., 1603-25) made among us the first device for catching DUCKS, known by the foreign name of a koye." Though the statement that Sir W. Wodehouse made the first Decoy in England is without other authorization, it is a very probable one as regards its truth, and it is one that has been frequently copied from that day to this. Although the name Decoy had been previously long in use in England, it was applied only to the tunnels of net resembling cages or pipes used for driving fowl into as afterwards described. | |