THE HISTORY OF DECOYS. 39 



offered admirable asylums to the feathered emigrants of the frozen 

 regions. The great desideratum seemed to be, to secure as large an 

 extent of inland-water for the purposes of decoy as could possibly be 

 had ; and thus we find many decoy-grounds consisting of a preserve 

 of several hundred acres of land and water. The Watton Decoy, in 

 Yorkshire, alone, had a range of a thousand acres of land and water. 

 Decoys have also formed the subject of special and heavy compen- 

 sation to the proprietors, when destroyed by the drainage of neigh- 

 bouring lands ; and we find in several private Acts of Parliament for 

 permitting the drainage of moors and fens, special provision is made 

 for compensating the proprietors and occupiers of such decoys as may 

 be injured by the operations. Decoys were formerly very lucrative 

 concerns : the quantities of fowl sometimes taken in them by the 

 Lincolnshire fowler of thirty years ago, would exceed the belief of 

 any one unacquainted with the operations. Pennant says he was 

 assured by several Lincolnshire decoymen that they would have been 

 glad to contract, for years, to deliver their ducks at Boston at ten- 

 pence the couple. And to the author's own knowledge, wild-fowl 

 were sometimes so abundant, and such numbers captured, that the 

 Essex and Norfolk decoyers were glad to sell wild-ducks at Is. per 

 pair. In former days decoys were generally let to fowlers at annual 

 rents ; and such as could not afford to embark in expensive under- 

 takings, rented small pools, and carefully selected spots in the fens, 

 where they constructed their own decoys, having merely a nominal 

 rent to pay for the occupation of the land ; sometimes not more than 

 5 per annum, and seldom exceeding 30. 



The Norfolk broads appear to be peculiarly adapted as a refuge and 

 nursery for wild-fowl, situated as they are on the most eastern extremity 

 of the English coast ; and, until of late years, when these favoured 

 haunts were destroyed, they literally swarmed with wild-fowl. In 

 those days the method of estimating their numbers was always ex- 

 pressed by the supposed extent of acres of water the flight or flights 

 appeared to cover ; and no one who has not visited the broads, or 

 some other such localities, can form any conception of the countless 

 thousands of wild-fowl which in severe winters might be seen in those 

 parts. At the present day, however, but few are bred in that once 

 favoured locality ; and there are now few decoys kept up for profit, 

 because of the uncertainty of taking a sufficient number of birds to 

 pay the heavy expenses attending them. These decoys, so far from 

 driving wild-fowl from a chosen locality, (as is supposed by some men 



