XX INTRODUCTION. 



of a particular decoy at Tillingham, on the coast of Essex, 

 is given in < The Field' of 15th Feb. 1868. 



One of the best existing decoys in the kingdom is that 

 known as the Ashby Decoy, in Lincolnshire. The late 

 owner, Mr. Henry Healy, caused a careful account to be kept 

 of each day's capture from the winter of 1833-34 down to 

 that of 186768 ; and the results, as arranged in the opposite 

 Table (p. xxi), will give some notion of the immense number of 

 fowl annually taken in a decoy, as well as of the proportions 

 in which the various species are found associated together. 



From this it will be seen that the captures have averaged 

 2741 head of wild fowl per annum, and in the course of five- 

 and-thirty years there has not been such a decrease in num- 

 bers as, from various causes, might have been expected. 

 Contrary to general belief, the number of birds taken, it ap- 

 pears, is influenced not by the coldness of the weather, but 

 by the amount of rain. If it is a very dry autumn, few birds 

 are caught ; but if there is a good deal of rain in October 

 and November, the reverse is the case. In very severe 

 weather they betake themselves elsewhere. In the opposite 

 Table it will also be noticed that the rarity of the Gadwall 

 is well brought out. In five-and-thirty years, twenty-two 

 specimens only were taken, and this in a favourable loca- 

 lity on the east coast. In Ireland, for reasons elsewhere 

 stated (p. 62), this Duck is much rarer than in England. A 

 pair killed in Dublin Bay, and another pair in the county of 

 Antrim (cf. Blake-Knox, 'Zoologist/ 1871, p. 2644), are 

 amongst the very few Irish specimens on record. 



It has been stated (p. 64), on the authority of Mr. Thomp- 

 son, that the Ferruginous Duck has not been obtained in 

 Ireland. One killed on the Dublin coast, however, in 1871, 

 was noticed by Mr. Blake-Knox in the f Zoologist/ 1871, 

 p. 2645. 



