128 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



it was diverting to see how he would toss up and turn a flat fish, plaice 

 or flounder, to get it right into its gullet 



" Here was also a small waterfowl, not bigger than a Morehen, that went 

 almost quite erect like the Penguin of America. It would eat as much fish 

 as its whole body weighed. I never saw so unsatiable a devourer, yet y" 

 body did not appear to swell bigger. 



" The Solan Geese here are also great devourers, and are said soon to 

 exhaust all ye fish in a pond. 



"Here was a curious sort of poultry, not much exceeding the size of 



a tame Pigeon a milkwhite Raven, a Stork, which was a rarity 



at this season, seeing he was loose and could fly loftily. Two Balerian 



Cranes The Park was at this time stored with numerous flocks of 



several sorts of ordinary and extraordinary wildfowl breeding about the 

 Decoy, which for being near so great a city is a singular and diverting 



thing."* 



It appears from this that Charles II. was a very prince of bird fanciers ; 

 he it was who gave the name to Birdcage Walk, for along its trees were 

 hung cages with birds, whose sale and barter he encouraged. On the 

 ground below, and between the trees, were fixed his own aviaries. 



At that date Birdcage Walk, and the greater part of St. James's Park, 

 especially what was known as the Inward Park, were kept very quiet and 

 select, and there were most stringent regulations in force to prevent 

 damage occurring to the Royal pets. Edward Storey, whose name is 

 mentioned in the Decoy expenses, was the King's Bird Keeper, and Storey's 

 Gate, at the south-eastern entrance to the Park, derives its name from his 

 house having stood at that point. 



Duck Island (the Decoy had long before disappeared) was abolished 

 at the end of the last century, for Pennant remarks, in 1 790, that under the 

 new improvement it had lately ceased to exist. 



* Wild-duck now and then visit, and nest in, the Z. S. Gardens in Regent's Park, and 

 regularly appear, during the winter, on the Long water in Kensington Park, as well as, occa- 

 sionally, even on the Serpentine Like in Hyde Park ! 



