A scarecrow or hay-man is a decoy or mannequin in the shape of a human. It is usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.
The 1881 Household Cyclopedia of General Information gives the following advice:
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 people now, however, believe that crows like most other birds, do more good by destroying insects and worms, etc., than harm by eating grain.
Scarecrow, in comics, may refer to:
Scarecrow is the eighth album by John Mellencamp. Released in September 1985, it peaked at #2 on the U.S. chart behind Heart's comeback album, Heart. The remastered version was released May 24, 2005 on Mercury/Island/UMe and includes one bonus track.
This album contained three Top 10 hits, a record for a Mellencamp album: "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.," which peaked at #2 in the U.S.; "Lonely Ol' Night," which peaked at #6; and "Small Town," which also peaked at #6. "Lonely Ol' Night" also peaked at #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, his second chart-topping single on this chart.
In 1989, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Scarecrow #95 on its list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s, saying: "Scarecrow consolidated the band's rugged, roots-rock thrash and the ongoing maturation of Mellencamp's lyrics."
Rolling Stone also reported that band spent a month in rehearsals, playing a hundred rock and roll songs from the Sixties before going into the studio. According to the record's producer, Don Gehman, the idea was to "learn all these devices from the past and use them in a new way with John's arrangements."
"The Scarecrow" is a song by Pink Floyd on their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, though it first appeared as the B-side of their second single "See Emily Play" (as "Scarecrow") two months before. It was written by Syd Barrett and recorded in March 1967. This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
The song contains nascent existentialist themes, as Barrett compares his own existence to that of the scarecrow, who, while "sadder" is also "resigned to his fate". Such thematic content would later become a mainstay of the band's lyrical imagery. The song contains a baroque, psychedelic folk instrumental section consisting of 12-string acoustic guitar and cello. Reflecting the experimental nature of many of the band's early psychedelic pieces, all instruments are panned to the extreme left hand and right hand sides of the stereo, with two vocal lines, one spoken and one sung. The US single (Tower 356) was released by Tower Records three times between July 1967 and late 1968. Each time it failed to duplicate its UK success.
A scarecrow is a device to discourage birds from disturbing crops.
Scarecrow may also refer to:
Scarecrow (Russian: Чучело or Chuchelo) is a 1984 Soviet drama film about bullying directed by Rolan Bykov.
Full of dramatic collisions film, loosely based on the novel by Vladimir Zheleznikov.
History clean, courageous and selfless girl Lena, classmates nicknamed scarecrow to make you look a lot different eyes.