136 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



interest and fascination. The tread of civilisation has 

 hardly touched them, and as one wanders along the 

 sea-banks, clothed with silver Artemisia and the wild 

 spinach, it is easy to imagine the days when the early 

 botanists went gathering " simples " along the Essex 

 shore, when large colonies of black-headed gulls bred 

 in the salt-marshes, when kites and buzzards soared 

 overhead, and when the raven was a common bird. In 

 former years immense numbers of wild-fowl were annu- 

 ally taken in the " decoys," of which there were many 

 along the coast. During the winter of 1799 no less than 

 ten thousand head of widgeon, teal, and wild-duck 

 were captured in a single decoy at Tillingham. About 

 the same time, at the famous Goldhanger decoy, " as 

 many pochards were taken at one drop as filled a 

 wagon, so as to require four stout horses to carry 

 them away." Even now there are several decoys 

 regularly worked in the Essex marshes, and a goodly 

 number of birds are annually taken. Widgeon, teal, 

 and wild-duck still abound along the coast in winter- 

 time, and the rarer sorts of wild-fowl are not uncommon. 

 The handsome pintail may occasionally be met with, 

 and the pochard and the shoveller are far from rare. 

 A few of the latter always remain to breed in the 

 marshes, and the nest of the sheldrake may be found 

 most seasons in the sand-hills near Dovercourt. Large 

 numbers of coots still exist — in former years the gunners 

 used to reckon them by the " acre " — and a custard made 

 of coots' eggs has only recently ceased to be a regular 

 dish at village festivals. A few small colonies of the 

 black-headed gull, also known as the peewit gull and 

 the cob, may be visited by those who know their haunts, 

 but the eggs are no longer collected, nor the young 

 birds fatted for the London market. 



