WILD DUCKS AND DUCK DECOYING 159 



Although the " driving of ducks " was allowed, a 

 code of Fen Laws decreed that neither nets nor 

 engine should be used against the fowl " commonly 

 called moulted ducks " before midsummer day 

 yearly. In the early days of the decoys enormous 

 quantities of fowl were taken in them. As many 

 as 31,200 duck, teal and widgeon were captured near 

 Wainfleet in a single season, and 2646 mallards in 

 two days. In these early times it is said that a 

 flock of wild ducks has been observed passing over 

 the Fens in a continuous stream for eight hours 

 together. 



Lincolnshire is pre-eminently the land of wild- 

 fowl, and at one of the smallest decoys that of 

 Ashby where the records have been carefully kept, 

 it is seen that from 1833 to 1868, 48,664 ducks were 

 captured in the pipes, 4287 being the best take for 

 any one year. Both now and in times past the 

 ducks have always been sent to the London markets 

 and constitute an important food supply. The 

 waters of the decoys are, of course, always fresh, 

 and being mostly frequented by the surface-feeding 

 ducks, the great majority of the birds taken are held 

 in estimation at table. It is true that widgeon and 

 other of the diving ducks are sometimes driven to 

 the decoys by rough sea-water, but these are too 

 wary to enter the pipes, nor do they stay after the 

 storms have abated. The ducks which constitute 



