Page 197 HISTORY OF DECOYS.

HISTORY OF DECOYS ( continued ).



CHAPTER XVIII.

DECOYS IN HOLLAND

As we are supposed to have originally derived our knowledge of Decoys, and the art of Decoying, from Holland, it may be considered within my province to allude to Dutch Decoys,as well as to those in the neighbouring state of Schleswig. Decoys, as may be surmised, are very successful in Holland, in consequence of the unlimited feeding-grounds that country and its shores and estuaries offer them. Besides this the Dutch preserve and protect wildfowl to a far greater degree than is the case in our islands; no one for instance on their coasts being allowed to fire a gun within a thousand yards of a Decoy. The law of Holland regards a Decoy as an established system of trade engaged in by its owner or occupier, and so encourages and protects him in his avocation of Decoying. I have not, it is true, made it a special study to learn the positions of all the Dutch Decoys or obtain notes of their successes; the latter feat would be a difficult task, for in Holland Decoys are more or less shrouded in secrecy and their doings concealed from inquirers on the subject. What information I have obtained, and am therefore able to lay before my readers, has been either through personal visits or through sources that can be relied on. Such as it is, I can vouch for its accuracy. From the examination of Government statistics, as well as by reason of careful researches I have made, it is probable that there are in Holland and its islands fully 70 to 80 Decoys now in active use. The immense total of fowl they take can therefore readily be conjectured.