The Book of Duck Decoys

Abstract

IN the year 1812 appeared the first instalment of what its eccentric author intended to be a sketch of the local history of the Lincolnshire Fens; therein “Fen-Bill Hall” declares his set purpose of devoting a portion of the work to the “life of a low Fen-man,” and of descanting largely upon the subject of decoys, adding that he had never seen but one rational writer on the subject, and that he (the said writer) manifested that he knew “nothing of the theory.” Hall's book came to an untimely end with the third part, and the author therefore had not the opportunity of writing “rationally” upon a subject which would have proved so interesting in the present day and upon which so much irrational writing has been lavished. Failing “Fen-Bill Hall” so well did the decoymen keep their secret and so securely were the decoys guarded from intrusion that in all the numerous subsequent so-called descriptions, with one or two partial exceptions, the writers showed an utter want of acquaintance with both the theory and practice of decoying, and in the exceptional cases named such experience was of a very limited character, the deficiency being in all probability supplied by intentionally misleading information on the part of the guardian of the decoy. It was not till the year 1845, when the Rev. Richard Lubbock published his well-known “Fauna” of Norfolk, that the first really reliable account of the art of constructing and working a duck decoy, the result of actual experience acquired by the writer, was given to the public. Since that time various more or less accurate papers on the same subject have appeared, but it remained for Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey (than whom no more competent authority could be found) to collect the literature of the subject, and with his own practical experiences added, to publish the first “Book of the Duck Decoy” in the form of the handsome volume now before us.

The Book of Duck Decoys; their Construction, Management, and History.

By Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey (London: John Van Voorst, 1886.)