38 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



land were the Lincolnshire f enmen, and numbers of poor families 

 were entirely supported by the returns of those decoys. But it is 

 not to that county alone that the drainage system has been con- 

 lined ; the counties of York, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Somerset 

 and, indeed, almost every county, more or less, have each in their 

 turn been encroached upon ; the haunts they offered the web- 

 footed species disturbed, and the spade and draining pipe have com- 

 pletely uprooted the substance, and drawn off the means of subsistence 

 of the feathered aquatics of those parts, which have been thus driven 

 to seek shelter in foreign lands. Thousands of wild-fowl of various 

 species were annually bred in the fens alluded to ; they were there 

 at all seasons of the year, though very much more numerous during 

 winter than at any other time. 



There is no doubt but the existence of extensive tracts of fen 

 land was the direct means of keeping wild-fowl together, and encour- 

 aging them to breed in this country; and after the formation of 

 drains in the fens, and cultivation of the soil, they were at first captured 

 in decoys with less difficulty, and in greater numbers, because they were 

 not scattered over such a wide extent of water, but resorted to smaller 

 pools, where the decoyer was enabled to practise his artifices upon 

 them with greater chances of success. A very logical plea as to 

 land-draining being beneficial to the purpose of decoys is appended in 

 the note below.* 



There is not now a tenth part of the fen and bog-land in this 

 country that there was formerly, consequently the numbers of wild-fowl 

 have much decreased. The winter visitants do not stay and breed 

 with us in such numbers as they used to do ; but those which halt on 

 English soil, on the annual emigration of wild-fowl, return to the 

 north early in spring, and breed in vast numbers on various parts of 

 distant shores where food and shelter may be had. 



Another fatal obstacle to the increase of wild-fowl is, the de- 

 struction of their nests by taking the eggs a mischievous system 

 regularly .pursued in the fens during* the laying season, generally by 

 indolent and disreputable characters. 



In former days there were, in various parts of the counties alluded 

 to, many bogs and morasses which seemed almost impenetrable, and 



* " And that decoys are now planted upon many drained levels, whereby greater 

 numbers of fowls are caught than by any other engines formerly used ; which could 

 not at all be made there, did the waters, as formerly, overspread the whole county." 

 Dugdale on Embanking : A.D. 1772. 



