70
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Woodward' ceased to be ' Duckoyman,' and in his stead one ' Ben Carter' was,
employed ; but either he was not so skilful as his predecessor, or wild-fowl were
never afterwards so plentiful. He never succeeded in taking more than 4,500
Wigeon in a season (this was in 1722), while Woodward never took less than
5,200 of these birds, and once captured 6,296 in five months. The months of
December, 1718, and January, 1719, were, so to say, singularly unproduc(k)tive.
During the former month, the decoy was worked only on two days, the 22nd and
the 30th, when only 40 birds, all Ducks, were taken. In January four days' work
only produced 53 Ducks and 12 Wigeon. * * * In 1721 the price of wild-fowl rose
to 12s. per dozen, * * * The following year, Deal gave 12s. per dozen to.
Michaelmas, and 14s. per dozen from that date to the end of the season."
" In 1723, the price from Mr. Wm. Foster was 16s. per dozen, and in 1725-6
Messrs. Darnoll and Basset paid the same price. With the close of this
season the MS. ends, and we are left in ignorance as to whether the decoy
was then given up, or whether the owner died and it changed hands, or
what its fate was. It would be interesting to know when and why it was finally
abandoned. * * * To judge by the following summary, which we copy from the
last page of the MS. (which is all in the same handwriting) it would appear as
if one reason for giving up the decoy was the gradual falling off in numbers of
the fowl observable during the last three years in which it was worked, or at least the
last three years in which an account has been preserved, and the consequent fall-
ing off in profits, which dwindled from £81 to £69, and eventually to £33 only,
but no reasons for this decrease are given."
* From this it appears that the reckoning was kept in 'dozens, birds and " half-birds," just as
it might be in pounds, shillings and pence. Thus in the thirteen years in question no less than
50,787 birds were taken, or an average of about 3,907 a year. But of these only 4,714 (the Ducks
and Pintails) were "whole birds," giving 393 dozen and 10 birds over. The remaining 46,073
birds (the Teal and Wigeon) were only "half birds," giving 1,919 dozen and 8 birds and 1 " half
bird" over, or a total of 2,312 dozen, 6 birds and 1 half bird, as shown above, allowing for a
slight error in calculation somewhere. In the Ashby Decoy, South Lincolnshire, from 1833-4 to
1867-8 were captured : Wild Duck, 48,664 ; Teal, 44,568; Wigeon, 2,019 ; Shoveller, 285; Pintail,
278 ; Gadwall, 22. Total 95, 836, an average of 2,741 birds per annum for the thirty-five years (see
Field vol. xxxii. p. 73). Thomas Pennant records 31,200 Ducks having been sent to London in
one season from ten decoys, near Wainfleet, Lincolnshire (British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 595).