192 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



them perhaps in number, were at the mouth of the 

 pipe, very much alive. Here they are now, neatly 

 laid out, before being taken away, dead as herrings. 



That is how it is done. One system will apply to 

 all the decoys on general lines, and as the art of 

 decoying was carried on in the fens from the earliest 

 times, the coymen from there have gradually taught 

 the art as practised by them to others in other 

 counties. Fowl had always been captured, but 

 the fen-dwellers, although they have been called 

 "slodgers," "web-foots," and " mud-nozzlers," knew 

 more about it than did the marsh-folks. Gentlemen 

 who visited the fens persuaded some of the fen 

 coymen to construct decoys for them, or to re-model 

 those on their properties. 



They met with fierce opposition, not shown openly, 

 for various reasons ; but a sort of quiet antagonism 

 prevailed, which made matters very unpleasant at 

 times. I have always been well posted in fen and 

 marsh records, and have full particulars of those 

 days, and as to past owners, dates, and the catches 

 round about our own shores on either side. 



The fault of some decoys was this, they were 

 too large to be properly worked. Because the 

 marshes were of vast extent as marshes, the marsh- 

 men thought the decoys must be large in order to 

 correspond ; but that was a mistake. When the fen 

 coymen made their decoys for them the natives 

 sneered at the small size of these, but when they 

 saw the enormous results of this new departure from 

 their old, very old plan, they quickly followed suit as 



