SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DECOYS 215 



long on the sides, eight roods broad ; no wildfowl 

 therein, but we were permitted to walk within the 

 hut. The 'coy ducks came boldly unto us and fed, 

 belonging hereunto 150 ducks, 13 drakes; dainty, 

 fair, spacious, and well-proportioned pipes, higher 

 overhead, longer and better compassed than I ever 

 saw in England. Twiggen nests provided for the 

 ducks to breed in. 



" The other 'coy joining hereunto much more 

 spacious and larger ; it hath six pipes in one end 

 only, thirty-five roods long and thirty broad. We 

 were not permitted to see this larger 'coy. Ducks 

 sold for 6d. apiece ; two pellstarts (pintails), two 

 smeaths" (wigeon),^ two shovelars,each equivalent 

 to a duck, and four teals 6d. 



" Another 'coy we saw, wherein are four pipes in 

 one end ; a great pool. The ducks fed with barley. 

 The dosf farm, three roods from the hut or the 

 pipes, and by the help of a little ladder the dog is 

 enabled to leap into the hole a yard high. The 

 fowl in the little 'coy fed with barley. But we 

 could not be admitted to take a full view of any of 

 these 'coys, neither are there any spy holes into the 

 pond ; but all their pipes are much more curious, 

 and carry a far better proportion than ours " (p. 17). 



On reaching Delft, Sir William Brereton 

 wrote : — 



" In this town tame storks and shovelars 

 (spoonbills) kept tame ; birds with long legs, less 

 bodies than our storks, and broader bills like our 



1 Known as " smee " in Norfolk. Newton, Diet. Birds, p. 5, 

 V. Smew. 



