94 HULL SCIENTIFIC AND FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB. 
and the posts and rails of “screens,” its profusion of bird life 
in the summer time, the old reed beds and the fishing in the 
pond, even the smell of the marsh gas when the pole was 
pressed into the soft black mud to push the boat along. This 
little sanctuary, when last I saw it, had lost its glory. 
The pond still had water in it, but was nearly grown up with 
reeds. The netting and hoops belonging to the decoy had 
fallen into the pipes, the reed screens had fallen in upon these, 
and rank vegetation covered the whole. A gamekeeper had 
taken the place of the decoyman; the ‘‘vermin-pole’’ was 
conspicuous with its usual record of its owner’s ignorance 
of the ways of birds, as proved by the spotted woodpecker 
recently added to the collection! Pheasants reigned supreme, 
and I left with a feeling of sadness. 
The description of the last days of the Friskney decoy 
almost applies to those of Ashby. Sir Ralph Payne Gallway 
speaks of the Ashby decoy as ‘‘the most successful decoy in 
the kingdom, and the only one worked in Lincoinshire.”’ 
My first visit to Ashby was in 1887, when I made the 
acquaintance of its then intelligent owner, Mr. George Tacey, 
who told me the decoy had been constructed not much more 
than fifty years, and that an accurate account of the catches 
of every day had been kept for the first thirty-five years of its 
existence. The following, copied from the Stamford Mercury 
for July, 1868, gives particulars of these, from which it will be 
seen that the average catch per annum was over 2740. 
Ducks. Teal. Widgeon. Shoveller. Pintail. Gadwall. Total. 
1833-34 1884 1232 102 —- 9 -= 3227 
1834-35 4287 1860 140 16 54 — 6357 
1835-36 959 788 38 16 7 — 1808 
1836-37 7603 326 24 14 a= -- 1132 
1837-38 1511 509 47 II 4 — 2082 
1838-39 758 791 21 2 4 = 1576 
1839-40 2014 2002 94 21 74 — 4245 
1840-41 2584 993 126 13 8 = 3724 
1841-42 1666 908 28 5 6 -- 2613 
1842-43 1094 2977 49 6 2 — 3228 
1843-44 1004 1036 88 3 3 = 2134 
1844-45 1298 1181 65 I 2 I 2548 
1845-46 1022 1321 39 3 5 I 2391 
1846-47 1428 1005 43 5 4 I 2486 
1847-48 1212 883 36 = I I 2133 
1848-49 1740 1971 53 9 & = 3778 
1849-50 1145 956 27 — 2 I 2131 
1850-51 380 853 34 — 3 — 1270 
1851-52 632 1003 72 I 2 I I71I 
1852-53 2682 3279 67 2 26 3 6059 
1853-54 2425 1605 75 I 3 2 4III 
i os 
