THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. | |
| The owner informs me that the operation of the Ground Game Act has nearly ruined these Decoys; the constant shooting scaring the wildfowl away. Before the passing of the Act, the average take every year was 1,370, but it has now dropped to about 500 head. These pools are on the same plan as that of the Hornby Decoy in Yorkshire, as well as those at Sedgemoor and near Glastonbury in Somerset, and from which latter they were originally copied,-though afterwards improved by William Skelton. The pipes are right and left-handed ones. The new pool was constructed by the late Mr. Joseph Wilcox, of Nash, near Newport, who owned Decoys at that place. Falling nets are fitted to the entrances of the Decoy pipes, so that by pulling a cord they can be dropped down. A great many Ducks were formerly thus captured at the Berkeley Decoys when feeding in the pipes at night. | |
 |
|
DECOYS IN THE COUNTY OF HAMPSHIRE. | |
Decoys in use. None. | Decoys not in use. North Stoneham. Bournemouth. New Forest. |
| North Stoneham Decoy, 2 miles SW. of Bishopstoke, on the property of Mr. J. W. Fleming, of Stoneham Park, halfway between Bishopstoke and Swathling, about a mile to the east of the railway line to Southampton from London, and a quarter of a mile west of the River Itchen. This Decoy has two pipes, and was constructed some eighty years ago, but was disused about twelve years since, in consequence of the great disturbance of the fowl by shooting in the neighbourhood. The Decoy is situated at a lower level than the River Itchen, with which it was, when in use, connected by a channel. In hard weather the Decoyman was wont to run all the water out of the Decoy at dusk after the fowl had flighted, and then, by an arrangement of sluices, fill it again with fresh water from the river in the early morning before the ducks returned from their feeding grounds. He thus was always able to offer unfrozen water to attract the birds when other Decoys were blocked up with ice. | |