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A scarecrow is a device (traditionally a mannequin) that is used to discourage birds such as crows from disturbing crops. Not only do crows feed on recently cast seed, they also gather nightly, starting with groups of a half dozen which then unite to form a group of 20 to 30 and so on until the flock is quite large and noisy. It is their habit to return to the same place each night. Thus, it is in the interest of farmers, gardeners, and homeowners to move them along.
The 1881 Household Cyclopedia gives the following advice:
- Machinery of various kinds, such as wind-mills in miniature, horse rattles, etc., to be put in motion by the wind, are often employed to frighten crows; but with all of these they soon become familiar, when they cease to be of any use whatever.
- The most effectual method of banishing them from a field, as far as experience goes, is to combine with one or other of the scarecrows in vogue the frequent use of the musket. Nothing strikes such terror into these sagacious animals as the sight of a fowling-piece and the explosion of gun powder, which they have known so often to be fatal to their race.
- Such is their dread of a fowling-piece, that if one is placed upon a dyke or other eminence, it will for a long time prevent them from alighting on the adjacent grounds. Many persons now, however, believe that crows like most other birds, do more good by destroying insects and worms, etc., than harm by eating grain.
Crows can be a problem in Spring gardens. They can work down a row pulling up recently sprouted corn to eat the remaining seed/seedlings. In the southern Appalachians another common method of scaring off crows was use of a dead crow hung upside down from a pole.
Modern scarecrows seldom take a human shape. On California farmland, highly reflective aluminized PET film ribbons are tied to the plants to create shimmers from the sun. Another approach are automatic noise guns powered with propane gas.
Other names for scarecrows
In the United Kingdom, where the use of scarecrows as a protector of crops goes back to times immemorial, and where dialects were rife, there are a wide range of alternate names such as:
Scarecrows in fiction
The scarecrow Odemedod was a frequent character in the Rupert the Bear cartoon series.
"The Scarecrow" was occasionally the pseudonym of a vicar, Doctor Syn, who moonlighted as a smuggler in a series of novels by Russell Thorndike.
The scarecrow was commonly used in 19th century English Literature, as shown by its presence in the L. Frank Baum tale The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as one of the main protagonists. The Scarecrow of Oz was searching for brains from the Great Wizard.
Another animated scarecrow from children's fiction was Worzel Gummidge, who first appeared in series of novels by Barbara Euphan Todd in the 1930s, and later in a popular television adaptation.
There is a DC comic book character known as The Scarecrow, and several Marvel Comics characters go by the same name.
Scarecrow, a fictional character created by the Australian author, Matthew Reilly. Scarecrow is the callsign of Captain Shane M. Schofield who appears in Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow and Hell Island.
Hatake Kakashi from the Naruto anime and manga series. Although he is not a scarecrow, his name means "farmland scarecrow" or "scarecrow farmland" (Kakashi meaning scarecrow and Hatake meaning farmland in Japanese).
Scarecrow is also the alias for Kuroda Shinpei, a character from the popular Japanese anime series Boogiepop Phantom. Upon being assassinated by Mo Murder it is Scarecrow's cape and hat that go on to define Boogiepop's other-wordly image.
See also
External links
Bibliography
Scarecrow Fact and Fable, Peter Haining, 1986
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"Scarecrow"