551 
institutions will soon become things of the past, and it is quite 
possible that the next generation may look back upon decoys, 
as wo do upon flint-locks or threshing-flails. 
We now come to the Active Decoys, of which there are six in 
all : two groups on the Fritton Lake, one at the llerringflcet, and 
the other at the Ashby End ; one at Westwick ; one at Wrctham ; 
another at South Acre ; and the sixth at Didlington. Commencing 
as before in Loth ingland, we find on the Fritton Lake, which is 
about three miles in length with an average width of about three 
hundred yards, the remains of six disused pipes on the north side, 
and two on the south side. The only pipe now worked on the 
north side of the lake is in the parish of Fritton, at the Hall 
Farm. Lieut.-Col. Leathes works three pipes (formerly five) at the 
Herringflcet end of the lake, and Sir Savile Crossley four more 
pipes at the Ashby end. Col. Leathes says, that he has no idea 
■when the decoy was first worked, but that it is certain it has 
existed over two hundred years, and that it has been worked by 
his family one hundred and sixty years. When John Fisk (the old 
decoyman, previous to 1818) made what he called a “good 
haul,” Col. Leathes says, the stone pavement in the court-yard at 
the hall, used to be covered from end to end with ducks taken in 
one day ; it took six hundred fowl to do this, and he would 
average two hundred ducks per day often for weeks, and this only 
at the Iierringfleet decoy, whilst equal takes were being made at 
the Ashby end. Within the last fourteen years, two thousand 
ducks have been taken at each end in one season, but lately the 
average has not been one thousand; in 1877-8, the take was very 
small. Success depends entirely upon the season and weather ; 
large numbers have been captured in November and March, but 
January and February are, as a rule, the best months. The season 
of 1867-8, was the best during the last twenty, but, as a rule, not 
one-twentieth of the former number are taken now. About 1820, 
the decoy used to pay .£300 per annum, after deducting all ex- 
penses. Duck and mallard formed the largest portion of the fowl, 
then, in order, wigeon, teal, pintails, and pochards; shovellers 
rarely of late, a few goosanders, and a gadwall or two. The 
proportion of the sexes seemed pretty even, but sometimes, though 
rarely, mallards were taken without ducks. “There can be no 
doubt,” says Col. Leathes, “ that railways, threshing-machines, and 
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