220
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
down into bags or pockets at the bottom. On one of the last
occasions when they were used, a waggon-load of birds was taken.
Bean was the name of the farmer who then held the decoy, and
Samuel Mussett of West Mersea fired the gun.
Mr. Jacob L. Pattisson, who wrote the Essex account of
decoying, in 1868 described this as the best known pond of its
kind.
Folkard (The Wildfowler, 1875, 3rd ed., p. 95) has handed
down to us an impression of the large numbers of Pochards
which were taken in Essex. The flights taken in the nets at
Mersea and Goldhanger were so great that the weight of the birds
caught in the nets was greater than that of the ponderous boxes
of weights placed at the lower ends of the poles, with the result
that the ducks have borne down the net and partly spoilt the
fowler's drop, but he adds that this was an unusual occurrence
and could not happen if the balance-boxes were adequately
weighted. At these same decoys the capture of Dunbirds on
one or two occasions within present memory was so great at a
drop that a waggon and four horses were necessary to remove
them : and they had fallen in such heaps on striking the net that
many at the bottom of the pen were found to be dead, apparently
having been killed by the pressure of the birds above. To
illustrate more fully what were described as the countless numbers
of Pochards which sometimes appeared on the Essex flight-ponds,
it is stated that the ducks have covered apparently almost every
available space on the water of the pond. From the same work
(p. 75) it is gleaned that Teal also seem to have been taken at
this decoy. The Essex decoys were stated to be still famous for
their supplies of Teal, and a few years ago a "spring" of four
hundred visited a small pond at Mersea in Essex, most of them
having been taken in a few hours.
23. Villa Farm Decoy was placed near the River Colne,
two miles and a half S.S.W, from Elmstead, and one mile E. from
Wivenhoe. Payne-Gallwey, writing in 1886, stated that the pool
still remained, although it was almost overgrown with reeds and
willows.
24. Lion Point Decoy lies on Cockett Wick Farm in the
Wick Marshes, half a mile from Old Lion Point, two miles S.S.E.
from St. Osyth and two and a half miles E. of Colne Point. By
reason of its position the pool was also known as Wick Decoy.
Payne-Gallwey states that it was made by the late Mr. George
Simpson in 1860, but never worked, and was in 1886 the property
of Sir J. H. Johnson.
25. Kirby-le-Soken Decoy was first alluded to as Decoy
Marsh by Mr. W. C. Waller (Trans. Essex Arch. Society, vol. vii,