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of decoys, as I have neither the acquirements necessary for anti- 
quarian research, nor the leisure to pursue it ; I will merely say, 
that although Folkard has two excellent chapters on the subject, 
there is still ample scope for further investigation. Neither shall I 
say anything about the practical working of a decoy, as I have 
never had the good fortune to be present on such an occasion ; 
and the mystery which so long surrounded its sacred precincts 
has been at length dispelled, first by Pennant, then by our 
own Lubbock, and finally, all that is known about practical 
decoying so carefully epitomised by Folkard, that very little 
remains to be said on the subject. 
The way in which author after author copied the grossly absurd 
statements of his predecessors, shows how little was known outside 
the decoy, of what occurred within its carefully guarded precincts ; 
of the results of the working of the many decoys which formerly 
existed in this country, very little is known, and for even that 
little we are indebted almost lo accident. Pennant mentions that 
something over 100 years ago, 31,200 ducks were taken in one 
season in ten decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, and that 
the decoymen “ would be glad to contract for years to deliver their 
ducks at Boston for lOd. the couple and the books kept at the 
celebrated Ashby decoy in Lincolnshire, were published some years 
ago, by which it appeared that during the period from 1833-4 to 
1867-8, no less than 95,836 fowl were killed in that decoy alone — 
but these are very exceptional cases, and the decoys, once so 
numerous in the counties of Lincoln, York, Essex, Norfolk, and 
Suffolk, may be said almost to have disappeared from the face 
of the country, leaving little more than a name to mark their site, 
and not always even that. 
I have been for some time engaged in collecting such information 
as I could obtain with regard to the decoys of Norfolk, feeling that 
if not done at once, the opportunity will soon be passed, and that 
to a considerable extent it has already passed aAvay ; some of tho 
• results of my inquiries I purpose to lay before you in this paper. 
First, however, let me say that though the dearth of material is 
grievously disappointing, and the difficulty of obtaining what little 
there is known, by no means slight, from tho too general absence 
of any records, in one thing I have been very agreeably 
surprised : my inquiries in every instance have been met with the 
