CHAPTER XV. 



THE FLIGHT-POND. 



" Alio loco ut seras ac colas silvam caeduam, alio ubi ancupere." 



CAIUS, Dig., lib. xli., tit. I, leg. 3. 



IT is very remarkable that the proceeding's and contrivances con- 

 nected with the flight-pond, should hitherto have been so cursorily 

 passed over as to excite but little attention from the multifarious 

 writers upon sporting literature ; yet so it is. The means employed 

 at the flight-pond are no less ingenious and interesting (though totally 

 different) than those already described as regards the decoy. 



It is also worthy of observation that, notwithstanding the numer- 

 ous decoys which were formerly used in various parts of Norfolk, and 

 the abundance of dun-birds, I can find no trace of a flight-pond being 

 employed in that county ; indeed, they have seldom been met with 

 in any other county than Essex, which seems always to have been 

 a favourite locality with that particular species of wild-fowl. 



During many years after decoys were invented, no means could be 

 discovered for taking the large flights of pochards which daily and 

 constantly frequented the decoys, to the vexation and annoyance of 

 many an indefatigable fowler ; who, day after day, raked his brain in 

 vain to discover, by some ingenuity, a means of capturing them. The 

 fowler saw them come and go to and from the waters of the decoy 

 with impudent independence ; they seemed to defy his efforts and 

 ridicule his eagerness to take them. This state of things continued 

 many years after decoys were employed, with considerable, success 

 and profit ; and it is evident that the flight-pond was not known until 

 long after decoys had been used for taking all other species of wild- 

 fowl frequenting inland waters. 



Throughout my researches I have been unable to trace any other 

 original allusions to flight-ponds than those few scanty notices re- 

 ferred to in the introduction ; from which it must have been impossible 



