NO'ICES OF NEW BOOKS. 381 
The early history of decoys in England is still involved in 
some obscurity, which even Sir Ralph Gallwey’s indefatigable 
research has not entirely removed. There are probably many 
earlier notices of decoys in England than those which he has 
quoted, commencing with an entry in Evelyn’s ‘ Diary,’ dated 
March 29th, 1665, which refers to a decoy then being finished 
by Charles II. in St. James’s Park; for, if Sir Henry Spelman 
was correct in stating, in 1641, that Sir William Wodehouse, in 
the reign of James I., was the first maker of a decoy in England, 
one would suppose that many allusions to, if not descriptions of, 
the invention would have found their way into print long before 
Evelyn penned the note in his ‘ Diary’ in 1665. 
We may mention one work which seems to have escaped the 
notice of Sir Ralph Gallwey, and which is worth quoting because 
it contains the positive statement that there were many decoys 
in the maritime counties of England before 1675, the date of its 
publication. It is entitled ‘Systema Agriculture, being the 
Mystery of Husbandry discovered and layd open by J. W.’ [John 
Worlidge.] The first edition, which appeared in 1669, does not 
contain the Chapter (XII.) of ‘‘Fowling and Fishing,” which 
was added in the second edition published in 1675, and in which 
the following remarks occur :— 
“A short digression concerning Decoy Ponds.—Falling into this dis- 
course concerning Waterfowl, I cannot omit to give you some incouragement 
to prosecute this most ingrossing way of taking them by Decoys; that 
which unless seen or known may seem incredible, how a few subtil Fowl 
should be able to draw, decoy, or trapan such multitudes of their own kinde 
into a known snare, and there leave them to their unfortunate ends; such 
unnaturalness being not to be paralleled in any other creature whatsoever. 
They are a peculiar species of that kinde of Fowl, and are from the egg 
trained up to come to hand. The manner of doing it and the making of 
the Pond, and the several apartments belonging unto it requires a skilful 
Artist, and not book directions. 
“That they are of considerable advantage, is not to be doubted, there 
being many of them erected in the maritime parts of this kingdom, the gain 
whereof is from the vast numbers of them taken in the winter time, which 
are supplied from the more northern regions, whence the frost, ice, and 
snow banish them into the more southern., The decoys flying abroad, 
light into their company, and soon become acquainted with them, and allure 
them being strangers; and they willing to follow them in hopes of good 
