DECOYS AND WILD-FOWLING IN ESSEX. 65 



the last occasions when they were used, a waggon-load of birds was 

 taken. Bean was the name of the farmer who then held the decoy, 

 and Samuel Mussett, of West Mersea, fired the gun. Arthur Young, 

 who seems to have been much struck by this arrangement, is cor- 

 roborated by Capt. Hipsey's statement. He says {loc. cit. ii., p. 

 362):- 



'■ The contrivance for taking Dunbirds was new to me. At the decoy for 

 them near Ipswich, there are a series of very high poles, to which the nets are 

 attached, for taking them in their flight ; and these poles are permanent. At this 

 Mersea Decoy, to which this bird resorts in large quantities, as well as ducks, 

 the net poles are suspended when not at work." 



Speaking of this subject, Folkard (The Wildfoivkr, 3rd Ed. 

 p. 95) says :— 



" To give some idea of the immense flights of Dunbirds which used to be 

 taken in the flight-nets at Mersea and Goldhanger, in Essex, the body of birds 

 has there been known to be so great that when their flight has been attempted to 

 be intercepted they have actually been heavier in a body than the ponderous 

 boxes of weights placed at the lower ends of the poles, and the consequence has 

 been that the birds have borne down the net and partly spoilt the fowler's drop ; 

 but such is a rare occurrence, and cannot happen if the balance-boxes are 

 judiciously weighted. * * * 



At these same decoys, the capture of Dunbirds on one or two occasions 

 within present memory, has been so great at a drop that a waggon and four 

 horses were required to remove them from the yard ; and they have fallen in 

 such heaps on striking the net that many of those at the bottom of the pen were 

 taken up dead — apparently crushed or stifled by the pressure of those above. 



To give a further illustration of the countless numbers of Dunbirds which 

 sometimes used to assemble on the Essex flight-ponds, it is a fact that the birds 

 have been known to resort in flights so numerous as to cover, apparently, almost 

 every available space of water on the pond." 



Teal also seem to have been sometimes taken here. Folkard 

 says {The Wildfowkr, 3rd Ed., p. 75) : — "The Essex decoys are still 

 famous for their supplies of Teal. A few years ago, a ' spring ' of 

 400 visited a small pond at Mersea, in Essex, the greater number of 

 which were taken in a few hours." 



We now leave the estuary of the Blackwater and enter that of 

 the Colne, in which the two following are situated :- — 



(21.) Villa Farm Decoy lay beside the River Colne, two miles 

 and a half S.S.W. from Elmstead, and one mile E. from Wyvenhoe. 

 The pool still remains, but is almost overgrown with reeds and 

 willows. 



(22.) Lion Point, or Wick, Decoy is on Cockett Wick 

 Farm in the Wick Marshes, two miles S.S.E. from St. Osyth. It 

 was made in i860, but never worked. 



F 



