32 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



The decoyman, though obstinately private in his avocation, is often 

 repaid with wholesale success ; and although not a sound has been 

 heard to issue from his lonely retreat, save the gasping gurgles of his 

 dying victims, he summons a pair of horses and a tumbril to take 

 away the produce of half an hour's ingenious labour. 



The invention is the result of rural skill, and may be traced to an 

 age of antiquity. Blomefield, in his "History of Norfolk,"* claims 

 precedence in the invention of decoys for Sir William, son of Sir Wil- 

 liam Wodehouse,f who lived in the reign of King James I. It is, 

 however, but a bare assertion, and stands unconfirmed by any other 

 authority ; nevertheless, the high character of that author's writings 

 is sufficient warrant of their authenticity. In a very important 

 case,! which was heard before Lord Holt in 1707, it was stated that 

 decoys had not then been of long standing. 



After examining some of the earliest authorities upon the subject of 

 fowling, we find them awake to various crafts for taking wild-fowl in 

 large numbers with nets and by other contrivances, some of which have 

 been already referred to under the head "Ancient Methods of Captur- 

 ing Wild-fowl ;" and the stat. 25, Henry VIII., cap. 11, is conclusive 

 as to the fact of wild-fowl being taken by thousands during the moult- 

 ing season : while from the accounts as to these proceedings, which have 

 been handed down to us by the authorities before referred to, it seems 

 that wild-fowl were driven into a remote corner of a large space of 

 water, and then up a pipe of net-work, and finally into a collapsible 

 trammel, very similar to that which is employed by decoyers at the 

 present day. The main feature, therefore, in the invention of decoys, 

 is the part performed by the dog, which, combined with the services 

 of the "coy-ducks," as they were anciently called,|| constitutes the 

 main secret of the art. Thus it differs from the other proceeding, 

 inasmuch that, instead of driving the fowl, they are enticed into the 

 decoy pipes. Ray, who wrote in the year 1678, attributes the inven- 



ticular rules or directions be given therein, as being variously made, according to the 

 situation of the place, which must be considered ; so that such as would make any, 

 had best inspect some already made, which are frequent in divers parts of this king- 

 dom, especially in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and such -like fenny countries." 

 Blame's Gentleman's Recreations. 



* Vol. v., folio edition. 



f The alleged introduction of decoys by Wodehouse is repeated by Mr. Palmer, 

 in his notes to " Manby's History of Great Yarmouth," vol i., p. 287. 



J Keeble v. Hickeringall ; and vide post " The Laws of Decoys." 



" An Acte ayenst Destruccyon of Wyld-fowle." 



|| Willughby's " Ornithology." 



