SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DECOYS 219 



mention of this decoy is made by Sir R. Payne 

 Gallwey in his book on decoys, nor by Mr Ussher, 

 in his Birds of Ireland, it is deserving of notice. 



" About a mile hence lies a farm called ' The 

 Park,' which is now leased unto one Mr Hardye, 

 an Englishman, who lives upon it, and hath an 

 estate in it about thirteen years. This land is 

 almost an island, and the rent which Mr Hardye 

 pays is about £\6 per annum. . . . Here is the 

 best feeding for fowl that I ever saw. This grass, 

 which comes from the mud, is good food for them, 

 and there is good store of it ; and here is a little 

 grove of oaks, wherein is no good timber, but it so 

 stands as it is most strong shelter to the fowl that 

 feed or frequent under it. Here is the most 

 commodious and convenient seat for a 'coy that ever 

 I saw, but there is no more room whereupon to erect 

 a 'coy betwixt the water and an high bank of the 

 wood, than four or five roods in breadth, but 

 sufficient in length ; so as you must either make so 

 much of the mud firm land whereupon to build your 

 coy, or else you must only make good one side 

 with two pipes, or you must erect your work upon 

 a point of land, which lieth much eastward, and is 

 in view of the town (Wexford), and much more 

 inconvenient, or you must carry away abundance of 

 earth to make a pond and pipes in some ground as 

 yet much too high to the N.W. end of the wood. 

 Here grow oilers (alders) sufficient to plant a 'coy, 

 and here is sufficient wood to cleave into stakes for 

 all uses, and as I am informed reed may be provided 

 out of Sir Thomas Esmond's land, which is on the 



