OLD WILD DUCK DECOYS OF LINCOLNSHIRE 
AND THE EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. 
By ky Awpas, E..p:sS: 
(Read February 28, 1900). 
- ERY little seems to be generally known, and very little 
has at any time been written on the subject of Duck 
Decoys and Decoying. All information on this subject 
was perhaps purposely witheld by the decoymen for selfish 
motives, and as, during the last half century, decoying had not 
been a profitable undertaking, and decoys consequently were 
greatly diminished in number, there would be less interest 
taken in the subject, and therefore less reason for anyone 
writing upon it. It was only when decoys ceased to be 
paying concerns, and when the few remaining ones were in 
the hands of gentlemen, and were worked principally for 
interest and amusement, that any complete history or descrip- 
tion of the general working and methods of capture was 
attempted. 
The delightfully interesting and complete account given by 
Sir Ralph Payne Gallwey, in his “* Book of Duck Decoys,’’* 
leaves little to be added, and tells almost all that can be told 
of the decoys of Britain. He deals with the few decoys 
remaining in use, those in disuse, and those which are now 
entirely obliterated. 
The art of decoying (as distinguished from the older 
methods of driving into nets in the latter part of the breeding 
season only, which are known to have been in use from the 
time of King John) appears to have been introduced into 
England from Holland, where decoys at one time flour- 
ished. In Blomefield’s “ Norfolk,’ we are informed that 
«Sir William, son of Sir W. Woodhouse, lived in the reign 
of James I., and is said to have been the first person who in 
England invented and erected decoys for taking wild ducks.” 
So far as can be ascertained the first mention of decoys 
in English literature is in Evelyn’s Diary, under the date 
March 29, 1665, where he states ‘‘ His Majestie [Charles II.] 
,was now finishing the decoy in the Parke,” and later, ‘“‘ The 
* Published in 1886. 
