112 BTftDS OP NORFOLK. 



periodically flooded, and many varieties of wild fowl 

 visited them. Since the improved drainage of those 

 parts of the fens, it is seldom that the washes are natur- 

 ally flooded, and the fowler's occupation would be gone 

 were not artificial means adopted. This latter mode of 

 flooding is by means of a " slacker" or small sluice, 

 through which water is admitted, and an area of eight 

 to twelve acres is thus covered with water from six to 

 eight inches in depth. In one portion of this lake the 

 fowler constructs a small island about thirty-six feet in 

 length and from four to five feet in breadth. Upon this his 

 net is spread, which is stained the colour of the ground, 

 and its meshes proportioned to the size of the birds 

 he is likely to take ; some nets having meshes one 

 and a-half inch, and others three inches in size. The 

 fowler keeps some live " decoy " birds (lapwings or ruffs) 

 and a dozen stuffed skins or " stales," and these are 

 placed on the island, close outside the range of the net. 

 The living birds being tethered, are made to flutter their 

 wings, whilst the fowler with a whistle imitates the 

 call of the birds on the Wash ; they are thus tempted 

 to alight on the island, and are ultimately captured. 

 The net, covering the surface, is so arranged that the 

 fowler, who sits at a distance of upwards of two hundred 

 yards, by means of a string attached to pullies, throws 

 over the net, and the birds are jerked into the water and 

 covered by it. The fowler rapidly approaches, and either 

 takes the birds alive, or at once breaks their necks and 



et 1 wype, 5d. ;" " 1 plover et 1 snype, 2|d., and in the Northum- 

 berland "Household Book" (1512), it is especially ordered that 

 " wypes be hade for my lordes own mees, only, and to be at jd. a 

 pece." Again in the " Household Book " of the Lord North (1577), 

 viij doos and x pewytts are entered at v 11 - xvij 8 - viij d - ; and in a 

 list of market prices, quoted by Mr. Lubbock from " Wade's 

 Chronological History of Great Britain," the cost of a peewit, in 

 1633, was tenpence, and a dozen tame pigeons only sixpence? 



