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Scarecrows in a rice paddy in Japan

A scarecrow is a device – traditionally a human figure or mannequin dressed in old clothes – placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.^[1]

[edit] History

A rather ineffective scarecrow

In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan (compiled in the year 712), a scarecrow known as Kuebiko appears as a deity who cannot walk, yet knows everything about the world.

The 1881 Household Cyclopedia of General Information 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.

—Henry Hartshorne, The Household Cyclopedia of General Information ^[2]

Crows can be a substantial problem for gardens in the springtime: 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 is automatic noise guns powered by propane gas.

[edit] Other names for scarecrows

Korean scarecrows

In the United Kingdom, where the use of scarecrows as a protector of crops dates from time immemorial, and where dialects were rife, there are a wide range of alternative names such as:

• Mommet (Somerset)
• Murmet (Devon)
• Hodmedod (Berkshire)
• Tattie bogle ^[3](Scotland), Bodach-rocais (lit. "old man of the rooks")
• Bwbach (Wales)

Alternative names for scarecrows also include these localized versions:

• Bogle
• Flay-crow
• Mawpin
• Mawkin
• Bird-scarer
• Moggy
• Shay
• Guy
• Bogeyman
• Shuft
• Rook-scarer
• Kelson

(Trudgill, Peter. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. London: Penguin Books, 2000)

[edit] Cultural impact

The impact of the scarecrow extends beyond its immediate utilitarian function. Scarecrows feature in literature and in festivals.

[edit] Literature

In the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, the main character attempts to keep birds from eating his newly sowed corn stalks. As a discouragement, he shoots several of the birds and then hangs them in rows, such as English prisoners. The remaining birds are so frightened that they refuse to even remain in the area. While not the modern idea of a scarecrow, Crusoe does remark, "...I could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hung there." (Crusoe is generally thought of as the first English novel to use the term and it is possible that the term owes its popularity to this appearance.)

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Feathertop" is about a scarecrow created and brought to life in seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts by a witch in league with the devil. He is intended to be used for sinister purposes and at first believes himself to be human, but develops human feelings and deliberately cuts his own life short when he realizes what he really is. The basic framework of the story was used by American dramatist Percy MacKaye in his 1908 play The Scarecrow.

L. Frank Baum's tale The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has a scarecrow as one of the main protagonists. The Scarecrow of Oz was searching for brains from the Great Wizard. In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz The Scarecrow of Oz was portrayed by Ray Bolger. In the 1914 film His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz the Scarecrow of Oz was portrayed by Frank Moore. Worzel Gummidge, a scarecrow who came to life in a friendly form, first appeared in series of novels by Barbara Euphan Todd in the 1930s, and later in a popular television adaptation.

The Scarecrow is the alter ego of the Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn, the smuggler-Robin-Hood hero in a series of novels written by Russell Thorndike. The first book, Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh, was published in 1915. The story was made into a movie (1937) and later taken up by Disney in 1963 and dramatized for its Sunday night audience as Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.

"Scarecrow" is the callsign of Captain Shane M. Schofield who appears in Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow and Hell Island by Australian author Matthew Reilly.

[edit] Comics

The Scarecrow is a character in the DC Comics universe, a classic supervillain and one of Batman's greatest enemies. Similar characters, known as Scarecrow and Straw Man, have appeared in Marvel Comics.

[edit] Music

Disney created a themesong for its 1963 Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, which included the lyrics, "Scarecrow, Scarecrow, the soldiers of the King fear his name! Scarecrow, Scarecrow, but the people love him just the same. SCARECROW!"

Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (Walt Disney Treasures) (1964) British band Pink Floyd recorded a song called "The Scarecrow" for their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, while Southern horrorcore rapper Boondox's stage act incorporates scarecrow imagery. In January 2008 Avantasia, a heavy metal project by Edguy's vocalist Tobias Sammet released an album called The Scarecrow.

A song on "Psalm 69" by American band Ministry is named "Scarecrow".

The album Peepshow by British band Siouxsie and the Banshees contains a track called "Scarecrow".

Beck's album Guero contains a song named "Scarecrow".

[edit] Other

In August 2004 a scarecrow dressed as a police woman was stolen from Middleton-in-Teesdale by staff at Loaded magazine who appointed it as guest editor for one issue. Mercury, Teesdale. "Men's magazine owns up to stealing scarecrow Nancy". http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/teesdale-news/story,773.html. 

Scarecrows are also a type of creature in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. They act as ordinary scarcrows animated by magical means.

[edit] Scarecrow festivals

In the UK, the festival at Wray, Lancashire was established in the early 1990s and continues to the present day. In the village of Orton, Eden, scarecrows are displayed each year, often using topical themes such as a Dalek exterminating a Wind turbine to represent local opposition to a wind farm. Norland, West Yorkshire has a festival. Tetford and Salmonby jointly host one. In Teesdale, the villages of Cotherstone, Staindrop and Middleton-in-Teesdale have annual scarecrow festivals. The village of Meerbrook in Staffordshire holds an annual Scarecrow Festival during the month of May. In Dymchurch on Romney Marsh a man dressed as a scarecrow rode down the street annually since 1964 in celebration of local author Russel Thorndike's Dr Syn books, however in 2008 he was required to walk due to health and safety regulations.^{[citation needed]} Tonbridge in Kent also host an annual "Scarecrow Trail". http://www.tmbc.gov.uk/cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?mysql=2922. , organised by the local Rotary Club to raise money for local charities. In the USA, St. Charles, Illinois hosts an annual "Scarecrow Festival". http://www.scarecrowfest.com/.  The 'pumpkin people' come in the fall months in the valley region of Nova Scotia, Canada. They are scarecrows with pumpkin heads doing various things such as playing the fiddle or riding a wooden horse. Cats and pigs made from pumpkins are also present.

[edit] See also

• Bird scarer
• Klopotec
• Kostroma (tradition)
• Henohenomoheji
• Sōzu

[edit] References

1. ^ Lesley Brown (ed.). (2007). "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles". 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-9233243.
2. ^ Hartshorne, Henry. (1881). "The Household Cyclopedia of General Information". New York: Thomas Kelly.
3. ^ Warrack, Alexander (1982). "Chambers Scots Dictionary". Chambers. ISBN 0-550-11801-2.

[edit] Further reading

Scarecrow Fact and Fable, Peter Haining, 1986

[edit] External links

Look up scarecrow in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• British history of the scarecrow
• Photo of a crow trap in Australia
• A typical English scarecrow made of discarded clothing