A FEW WORDS ON FEN-LAND. 221 



Hardly any thing is more characteristic of the fens than the decoys, 

 which have been so often described that it is needless to repeat the process. 



Lubbock says (' Fauna of Norfolk,' p. 105) : — 



" Blomefield names one of a distinguished Norfolk family as the founder 

 of decoys : — ' Sir Wilham, son of Sir William Woodhouse, Uved in the reign 

 of James the First, and is said to have been the first person v^^ho, in England, 

 invented and erected decoys for taking wild Ducks.' " 



Pishey Thompson states C History of Boston,' p. 676) : — 



" In one season, a few years previous to the inclosure of the fens, ten 



decoys, five of which were in the parish of Friskney, furnished 31,200 Ducks, 



Widgeon, and Teal for the London market." 



Decoys are fast going out of fashion ; they will hardly last much longer. 

 The woodcut of the one now at Friskney is from a sketch in my own collection 

 of such things, recently taken by Mr. Vernon Howard, School-of- Art Master 

 at Boston. (Plate CIX.) 



At Whittlesea Mere, a good authority tells me that fifty dozen Ducks 

 have been taken in one day, and two hundred dozen in seven days. As for 

 Coots, "which came in moonlight nights in great lumps," they used to 

 take their eggs in bushels. When the water rose into the nest they would 

 start again, and build a fresh one on the spoilt sitting of eggs. 



