HISTORY OF DECOYS. 109 



tceiith century, Drayton, in Song 25 of the ' Polyolbion ' (Holland's 

 Oration), in a most interesting passage enumerates the Birds found in the 

 Fens ; and Fuller* thus writes of the quality and excellence of the 

 Lincolnshire fowl : — 



" In the middle of the eighteenth century, the same state of things ob- 

 tained in the East Fen, and is graphically described in a most interesting 

 passage, though too long to quote, in Gough's edition of Camden's ' Bri- 

 tannia. 'f The same author, speaking of Crowland, also tells us that, 'their 

 greatest gain is from the fish and wild ducks that they catch, where are so 

 many, that in August they can drive into a single net three thousand ducks ; 

 they call these pools their corn-fields ; for there is no corn grown within 

 five miles.' 



" The population of such a unique country, as might be expected, was 

 sui generis ; and the life of a Fen-man, could it be written from a Natural- 

 ist's point of view, would, indeed, be interesting ; but the material is now, 

 alas, of the scantiest. There is a curious poem extant — for a sight of 



* Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 2. 



" ' Lincolnshire may be termed the Aviary of England, for the IVild-foule therein ; 

 remarkable for their, 



1. Plenty ; so that sometimes, in the month of August, three tlwtismid Mallards, 



with Birds of that kind, have been caught at one draught, so large and strong 

 their tiets ; and the like must be the Reader's belief. 



2. Variety ; no man (no not Gesmar himself) being able to give them their proper 



names, except one had gotten Adam's Nomendator of Creatures. 



3. Deliciousnesse ; Wild-foule being more dainty and digestahle than Tame of the 



same kind, as spending their grossie humours with their activity and constant 

 motion in flying.' 



t Vol. ii. (1S06) pp. 380, 381. "The East Fen is now drained and cultivated; but 

 there still remains a tract of country, though not in Fenland, but in Norfolk, which greatly 

 resembles the East Fen of past days in that happy admixture of water and dry land, inter- 

 persed with reed beds and dwarf marsh trees and shrubs, so acceptable as breeding quarters 

 for Wild-fowl. Though apparently unknown to the old writers on such matters, the Norfolk 

 Broads were as rich, if not richer, in marsh and water-breeding birds than any of the localities 

 they love to expatiate upon, and they long rem.ained unchanged, after the more famous resorts 

 were drained and deserted by their former inhabitants. Although we have lost the Godwit, 

 Ruff, Black Tern, Avocet, and Bittern, still, in the present year, eight out of the nine species 

 of Duck which are known to breed in England are still nesting in this county, and seven of 

 these may be found together in one favoured locality of no very considerable extent. Happily 

 they are most rigorously protected ; but I question whether any other district in England of 

 like extent can claim as many species of this family as regular breeders." 



