CHAPTER Xlll. 



THE LAW OF DECOYS. 



A DECOY is an enterprize of advantage to the proprietor, maintained 

 at considerable expense, and in the nature of a trade of great profit j 

 there is therefore the same reason why a person should be repaired in 

 damages to his decoy, as in any other trade. 



Although decoys are not the subject of any special statutory enact- 

 ment, they are protected at common law. The statute 9th Anne 

 cap. 25, prohi1)ited the taking of wild-fowl by " hayes, tunnels, or 

 other nets" between the First of July and the First of September, 

 under a penalty of five shillings for every bird ; and the subsequent 

 statute of 10th Geo. II. cap. 32, extended that prohibition to the 

 intervening time between the First of June and First of October. But 

 those statutes had reference, more particularly, to a destructive 

 system, formerly prevalent in this country, of taking wild-fowl by 

 driving them into nets, during the moulting season. The proceedings 

 of capturing wild-fowl by decoy, however, fell within the pale of 

 those enactments ; and the decoy-season was regulated accordingly.* 

 Both those statutes are repealed by 1 Wm. IV. cap. 32. 



There is a distinction, recognised by law, between an ancient and a 

 modern decoy. If, by long permission or iminterrupted enjoyment, 

 a decoy becomes established without interference by the owners of 

 adjacent lands, the occupier is so far protected in the free exercise, 

 profit, and enjoyment of it, that an action would lie for injury to the 

 decoy, by firing- off a gun very near to it, or making other wilful dis- 

 turbance, though committed on the offender's own land. 



A decoy established during twenty years, without interruption by 

 the proprietor of adjoining lands, or others, becomes a privileged 

 place, and the proprietor attains a right to command the accustomed 

 quietude necessary for the successful operations of his art. 



Though a man can have no property in wild-fowl when they are 



* Vide ante, p. V2. 



