HISTORY OF DECOYS. 117 



branch of the M. S. and L. Railway, and 2 miles from the right bank of 

 the River Trent at Althorpe, to the left of the road from Ashby to Burring- 

 ham Ferry. Here may be seen the most successful existing Decoy in the 

 kingdom, and the only one now worked in Lincolnshire. It was lately 

 owned by Captain Healy (whose father, Mr. Henry Healy, constructed it), 

 but upon his death in 1868 it was offered for sale, and was purchased by 

 old Mr. Tacey (lately deceased), the father of Mr. George Tacey, who now 

 owns it. The extent of the pool is about 2 acres, and it has four pipes. 

 Captain Healy had an accurate account kept of each day's capture from 

 its first winter in 1833-34 down to that of 1867-68, and the results, as 

 arranged in the subjoined table, which was published in the sporting 

 papers at the time the Decoy was offered for sale on the death of its 

 owner, will give some ^notion of the immense number of fowl annually 

 taken, as well as the proportions in which the various species are found 

 associated together. From this it will be seen that the captures have 

 averaged 2,741 head of wildfowl per annum, and in the course of five-and- 

 thirty years there has not been such a decrease in numbers as from various 

 causes might have been expected. Mr. J. Cordeaux, of Great Cotes, Ulceby, 

 when visiting this Decoy in December, 1882, was informed by Mr. Tacey 

 that a few years ago he had taken 6,321 Ducks and Teal, and of these 

 2,300 were captured in 31 days, or in just a month's time. The average 

 take for the last dozen years in the Ashby Decoy has been nearly 3,000 

 fowl in a season. The largest number of fowl taken at Ashby during 

 recent years at a single drive was 1 1 3 Wild-duck. The same day 248 

 Ducks were caught in all. 



Stonehurst, in his " Hist, and Topog. of the Isle of Axholme, 1839," 

 states (pp. 62-70), that a covey of Partridges was once taken in a pipe 

 here. 



The Decoy is well kept and managed, as is likely to be the case, for 

 its tenant states it pays him better than the farm attached to it. 



Birds taken in the Ashby Decoy from 1833-34 to 1867-68: — See 

 table on following page. 



