WILD- FOWL DECOYS IN ESSEX. 1 63 



This wholesale destruction of wild-fowl, carried on at a season of 

 the year when they were unable to save themselves by flight, threat- 

 ened their speedy extermination, and legislative measures were 

 adopted to prevent it. Even so long ago as 1534, in Henry the 

 Eighth's time, an Act of Parliament entitled " An Act to avoide 

 distruction of wilde fowle " was passed with the express object of 

 appointing a " close time " for these birds. The preamble to this 

 act is thus quaintly worded : — 



"Where before this time ther hath ben within this realme great plentie of wilde 

 fowle, as ducks, mallardes, wigeons, teales, wild geese, and divers other kinds of 

 wild fowle, wherby not onely the king's most honourable houseliold, but also the 

 houses of the noblemen and prelates of this realme have ben furnished for the 

 necessarie expences of the same houses at convenient prices, but also al markets of 

 the same realme were sufficiently furnished with wild fowle, there to be sold in such 

 wise that such as were mete to make provision of the same for their houses might at 

 resonable prices at the same markets be therof provided. Neverthelesse divers 

 persons next inhabiting in the countries and places within this realme, where the 

 substance of the same wildfowle hath ben accustomed to brede, have in the sommer 

 season at such time as the saide olde fowle be moulted and not replenished with 

 fethers to flie, nor the yong fowle fully fethered perfectly to flie, have by certaine 

 nettes and other ingins and policies yerely taken grete numbre of the same fowle in 

 such wise that the brede of wilde fowle is almoste thereby wasted and consumed, 

 and daily is like more and more to waste and consume, if remedie be not therefor 

 provided." 



The statute accordingly went on to provide that any person or 

 persons taking wild-fowl with nets or other engines between the last 

 day of May and the last day of August should, on conviction, suffer 

 a year's imprisonment, and forfeit for every fowl so taken fourpence 

 Another section of the same Act made it illegal to take their eggs. 



No restriction was placed upon the capture of wild-fowl at any 

 other time of year than that above specified, and man's ingenuity 

 soon contrived a mode of making amends in winter for the opportu- 

 nities lost in summer, by taking in decoys large numbers not only of 

 the home-bred wild-fowl which had escaped destruction earlier in the 

 year, but of the migrating flocks arriving at the commencement of 

 the cold weather. 



So far as can be judged from imperfect descriptions, the form of 

 decoy (introduced into England, it is said, by Sir William Wodehouse 

 in the reign of James I.) was probably much the same as that used 

 at the present day, allowing for certain modifications and improve- 

 ments which time would be sure to develop.' 



' The practice is doubtless of Dutch origin ; the word decoy being in fact a corruption of the 

 Dutch fe«rt'e-(4'<7^z signifying a "duck-cage." 



